Charmed Heritage: 111 Phoenix Witch
by StoryGirl83
Summary: The aftermath of the attack on Wyatt has left the whole family a shocked. Chris is still trying to get used to working for Piper. On Chris first time running a shift at The Manor he runs into someone he knew in the other time, but he never expected this.
1. Preparing For Battle

Phoenix Witch

Prologue - Preparing For Battle

Thursday, March 11, 2027

It was early afternoon on a foggy day in downtown Oakland, California. Lawrence Holbrooke had planned to take his wife and young daughter to see the newest blockbuster for kids, a movie about butterflies of all things. Those plans had been unceremoniously canceled when his wife had walked into the living room five minutes before announcing she had a job. For most people that didn't mean dropping everything, but with Bianca, her jobs were usually a matter of life and death. And so Lawrence found himself on the back porch watching as his wife dug through a chest of weapons and other dangerous "toys".

"Does this have to be tonight, Bianca?"

Bianca stopped and looked up. The look on her face was a mixture of affection and amusement as she replied, "You know as well as I that they are very good at what they do, Lawrence. I can't afford to risk it. Do you want to join me?"

Lawrence smiled down at his wife. "Exactly where are we going, Bianca?"

"A little restaurant in San Francisco called The Manor. A little fancy for Ashlyn, but I don't anticipate any immediate problems, so if you want we can make it a family dinner." She gave him a flirty grin. "I hear the food is delicious."

Lawrence shook his head, smiling. "If you don't anticipate any immediate problems, then why can't it wait until tomorrow?"

"I expect the attack will be tonight, when they are asleep. Vera is good. I've lost innocents to her before. I don't particularly wish to chance that without giving them at least a warning and help if they want it."

Lawrence nodded. "All right then. I'll go get Ashlyn ready while you finish with your . . ." he waved his hand at the chest, " . . . whatever that is."

Bianca laughed. "You'd think that after all these years you would understand what this stuff was."

He shrugged. "Perhaps I think it is better if I don't. Will ten minutes be enough?"

"You can get Ashlyn ready in ten minutes? I'm impressed."

He just smiled. "Ten minutes."

She nodded. "Ten minutes." She blew him a kiss as he headed toward the back door. When he was out of site she went back to digging through her chest.

* * *

Not sure what anyone here will think of this story, but yes, this is the Bianca from "Chris-Crossed". She's somewhere around twenty-eight-years-old and married for several years to Lawrence Holbrooke. They have a three-year-old daughter named Ashlyn.

The next chapter of this story takes place in Wyatt's hospital room, because he is still in the hospital. As for what his condition is, well you will just have to wait and read it. Chris is there with him, needing to leave soon for work, but wanting to stay, very much worried about his brother . . . and annoyed at certain mambers of his family.


	2. Visiting

First a thank you to my reviewers:

lizardmomma - Thank you.

TaintedDarkInuShemeeko - Well, it would be kind of hard to do a story about Phoenix and not involve Bianca. This story involves my idea of what they are, based off the two sentences from "Chris-Crossed". It gives me a little leeway. One thing I know for sure is that Phoenix are witches, which implies to me that if they are evil they are warlocks. Bianca and her daughter are witches, a unique type of witch, but still witches. And the protagonist in this story, Vera, is a warlock. And she's creepy. You will see that when you see her basement. I am not sure what Lynn is, since she clearly killed. She might be either a witch or a warlock. I will not try and decide that in this story, but if I do a story that involves her, I probably will decide.

As promised, this chapter is in Wyatt's hospital room.

* * *

Chapter One - Visiting

Chris Halliwell had been sitting by the hospital bed for over an hour. It was almost time for him to leave and go to work. His brother had been in bed for six days, one day longer than he had worked for their mother.

"You going to just sit there?" Wyatt Halliwell asked as he pushed himself up against the pillows, revealing that he was awake.

"I just wanted to check on you."

"Then, why didn't you wake me?" Wyatt wanted to know.

"You need your rest if you are going to heal."

Wyatt scowled. "Good old Aunt Paige, refusing to help me until I'd rested for an unspecified amount of time to be chosen at her discretion."

Chris laughed.

"It's not funny," Wyatt snapped. "I can't walk. I can't even move the lower half of my body. What if I were attacked? What if you were?"

Chris sobered up. "If you were attacked, you'd still have your powers. Provided you could see them, you'd probably be fine. As for me . . ." Chris shrugged. "I've already survived an attack without your help."

Wyatt had heard about that, but it didn't sit any better with him now than it had two days before. "You don't need me."

"Never think it," Chris protested.

"So what happened?" Chris hadn't mentioned it before, and he wanted to know his little brother's perspective.

"Never mind about that," Chris frowned. "I'll tell you about it when you get better, if you'd like."

Wyatt scowled. "You mean when Aunt Paige or Hank decided to . . ."

"No," Chris interrupted, standing and walking over to his brothers bed. He stabbed a finger at Wyatt's stomach opposite where a tiny knife had nearly severed his brother's spinal cord. It had at first looked like a tiny nick, which was bad enough, but it soon revealed itself to be almost completely cut through. "You _will_ heal with _or_ without their help. You _will_ be able to walk, again. You _will_. You have to." Chris groaned and threw himself into the chair, ignoring the stab of pain that racked him as he hit his own ribs wrong. "Why is it so hard?"

Wyatt raised an eyebrow at his little brother. "_You_ think you have it hard? I'm the one who can't walk."

Chris was unable to hide the wince as he started to get up, again.

Wyatt frowned. "Chris?"

"It's nothing."

"What's nothing?"

Chris sighed. "Bruised ribs. Nothing more."

"Aunt Paige."

Chris snorted. "I swear she wants to teach me some sort of lesson. She forbid Hank to help either."

Wyatt raised his eyebrow, again. "Interesting. She has no say over what I do, so get over here and I'll fix it before you head to work."

"But . . ."

"Don't argue," Wyatt warned," unless you _want_ to be in pain, And we both know you have to leave soon."

Chris sighed and pushed himself up, ignoring the pain in his ribs. He walked over to the bed where his brother could reach him. "It's not fair that you can heal me, but not yourself."

"I've learned to live with it," Wyatt informed him as he looked at the closed hospital door. Assured that it was closed he lifted his hands and started to bring them toward his brother. He stopped short and frowned. "Which side?"

"Right side," Chris replied without hesitation. His voice was hesitant as he added. "I was thrown into a wall."

Wyatt nodded as he held his hands against the right side of his brother's rib cage. As a warm golden glow emanated from his hands he replied in a matter of fact voice, "I know."

The relief from pain was such that Chris almost missed it. When it registered he looked at his brother startled. "You know?"

"Ladybug mentioned it."

"Ladybug?" Chris scowled. "I should have known I couldn't trust her."

"She's eminently trustworthy," Wyatt argued. "She was picking my brain for ideas on where her parents might be since officially they should have been back yesterday."

"Any ideas?" Chris asked, moving away, stretching his arms, testing his ribs. "And thanks."

Wyatt grinned. "No problem and no, no ideas Ladybug and her sisters hadn't already checked, but it felt good to be needed even in this state."

"You are needed," Chris informed him. "Don't ever think you aren't. I'll go over there as soon as I have a chance, offer help if I can."

"You do that," his brother agreed. "Do that, but also get off to work before you're late."

"I work for Mom."

"So? That just means messing up is that much worse. Besides you said Mom, Drinka, and Callie were all off."

"When did I say that?"

"Yesterday. You're in charge tonight, little brother."

Chris laughed and nabbed his coat off the back of the chair he'd been using. "Bye, Wyatt."

"Bye," Wyatt returned as Chris exited the room. When his brother was gone, Wyatt settled back into his bed, bored.

And as he did, his toes wiggled.

* * *

Yes, Chris was in a fight with a demon sometime in the five days between the end of "Good-Bye, Centennial" and "Phoenix Witch". If anyone wants to hear about that I will try and write up something to put before the next chapter. I have a vague idea, but only that. The next chapter follows Chris to work. And the Holbrooke's are there eating though he doesn't know that at the beginning of the chapter.


	3. Managing

First a thank you to my reviewers:

holly - Thank you.

harryandjamesluvr - Well, it's actually two chapters, with most of it in the next chapter. You get his inicial reaction here. As to Phoebe and Coop, they have never actually appeared in an episode, but in "Anti-Orb Zone" Cilly mentioned that they were going on some sort of vacation. Their plan was to to be gone for one month. In "Morality Bites 2: Biting Back" they tried to find them to tell them about Prue and maybe get their help, but were unable to find them. However since they had only been gone a few days at that point they couldn't be sure that it wasn't on purpose. Between "Good-Bye, Centennial" and this story that month expired, so now they can officially be sure that it wasn't on purpose. If you have read my "Imaginary Fiends (and Real Friends)" there are references to this there as well. It takes place about two months after this story, so that will be an underlining backstory for a while until they find out what happened to Phoebe and Coop.

TaintedDarkInuShemeeko - Chris is definitely frustrated about not being able to heal as he wants to help his brother, but yes, it is good that Wyatt could help him. Chris does not need injured ribs on top of . . . but that would be telling. Just know that by the end of the story Chris will be very glad that his ribs are healed.

lizardmomma - Works for me. I didn't know if anyone was interested in what happened. It wouldn't have been part of the story, just a few word explanation of what happened. Not a big deal. I'm glad you liked that Wyatt's toes wiggled.

FirePony16 - It makes me smile that Wyatt's toes wiggled, too, though I know exactly what's going on. You guys will have to wait a very long time to learn what happened, because that's one of my little secrets. However, you will learn soon enough the results of the wiggling toes.

This was fun to write. At one point this was the first chapter of this story, but when Wyatt was injured in the previous story, well that had to come into play.

* * *

Chapter Two - Managing

About an hour and a half later, Chris was standing by the stove in The Manor's kitchen, cooking. As predicted, the crew was rather young. New mother, Chelsea Michaels, was the only employee older than he was, and it was Chelsea's first day back after maternity leave.

Emily Colson walked into the kitchen from the dining room looking annoyed. In a mocking falsetto voice she said, "You'd think she could remember that I get the same thing every time I am here." Chris watched with interest as she changed her voice to an equally mocking deep voice and said, "Be patient. She's so young, and you know youths these days." In her normal she exclaimed, "Arrgg! I could just scream. I've never seen that woman before in my life and she assumes that I should know her order before she speaks. And it's not even on the menu."

"You all right?" Chris asked, amused.

Emily looked up as if seeing him for the first time. She heaved an exaggerated sigh. "Yeah. I'm fine." She scowled. "Customers!"

Chris looked at an imaginary watch on his wrist. He shook it as if not sure the time was accurate and put it to his ear, as if listening for a tick to show that it was working. He dropped his wrist and looked at Emily, who was watching him, fascinated. "It sure didn't take long for you to get jaded."

"Tell you what," Emily replied with a shrug. "I'll cook and _you_ wait on customers."

"Not a chance," Chris shook his head. "Mom told me to cook. I'm staying here."

"Coward," she shot back. When he grinned, she sighed and handed over her order. "I have another table to wait on. A couple with a toddler."

Chris grimaced and closed his eyes. "Has the toddler behaved so far?"

Emily nodded. "More so than Mrs. Why-don't-you-know-my-order."

Chris grinned harder at the weird moniker. "Tell me if there are any problems I need to handle."

"And I can cook?" Emily asked, hopefully.

Chris rolled his eyes, laughter filling them. "From what I heard you didn't even have something ready to prepare for your interview."

"I didn't know I was supposed to have something for an interview here," she shot back.

He eyed her speculatively. After a moment he smiled. "How about I talk to my mom and see if she'll give you a trial in the kitchen?"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, no problem." Chris tried not to laugh at the look of hope on her face. "But not tonight."

"A girl can dream can't she?" She winked at him.

Chris shook his head, laughing. "Let me see if I can't resolve this problem in the dining room."

"Thank you so much."

"You're going to have to toughen up," he warned her. "People aren't always happy. Sometimes it has nothing to do with you, but you still get the brunt of it."

She sighed. "Yeah, I know, but I sure would like to avoid this confrontation."

Chris sighed. "Fine. Watch the stove. Don't let anything burn."

"Done."

He just shook his head as he headed into the main dining room. It didn't take much detective work to figure out which couple Emily had been complaining about, even if he had forgotten to ask. The woman was a middle aged woman with graying blond hair and a perpetual scowl on her face. The man was slightly less annoyed, but seemed almost nervous as he sipped on his water.

Chris walked over to them with a smile on his face. "Hello, my name is Chris. I understand you are having some sort of trouble."

"That waitress didn't know my order," she woman scowled at him. "I told her to just get the cook and she would know what I wanted. Where is the cook?"

"Ma'am, tonight, I am the one in the kitchen."

The woman frowned. "But where is Mrs. Halliwell."

"She's on a date," Chris informed her.

"A date?" The frown deepened. "Why is she not eating here? Does she not like what her restaurant cooks?"

"She cooked something up at home and went with my dad to the hospital where my brother is convalescing."

"Your brother?" The frown just kept getting deeper. "Your dad? Is she related to you?"

Chris nodded. "Yes, Ma'am. She's my mom. I can cook just about anything she can, but I'm afraid I must have misplaced any notes about your meal, so you will have to tell me so I can make it."

The irony in his voice was lost on the customer, but at least she seemed to brighten up. "Well, of course I can do that, seeing as you are new to the kitchen. Mrs. Halliwell's son? Isn't that a wonder?"

Chris barely suppressed a groan, but he wrote on Emily's notepad as the customer's told him their orders. As Emily had suspected, the order was _not_ on the menu.

When he finished taking the order he started back for the kitchen, where he fully intended to remain the rest of the night. He was about half way there when he stopped short. He froze still and heaved in a huge breath. Memories from the other time line clamored through his head so fast he barely had time to process them.

Once he was able to control his breathing he slowly turned. His mind hadn't played tricks on him. Or rather part of it had, the part that contained those other memories, but the part that identified the woman seated at one of the tables ten feet to his left had not tricked him.

It was _her._

It was _Bianca._

* * *

Sorry guys, but I'm only giving you his inicial reactions to seeing her, so see what happens next and see him actually converse with Bianca you'll have to wait for the next chapter. And it will be the next chapter.


	4. First Encounters of the Familiar Kind

First a thank you to my reviewers:

lizardmomma - That was fun.

harryandjamesluvr - Glad to hear it. :)

FirePony16 - Thank you very much. Here you go.

I hope that everyone thinks I did this justice.

* * *

Chapter Three – First Encounters of the Familiar Kind

Chris didn't know how to respond. She was sitting at the table with a dark haired man and a dark haired toddler. This was probably the table Emily had mentioned in the kitchen. Not that is mattered. She was there.

She also didn't know him. And she was married if the man and the toddler where any indication. He cursed the demon who had fixed his memories, so that he remembered everything. He cursed the elder who had stabbed him. He cursed anyone who had anything to do with why he had two sets of memories, including his other self.

He breathed in hard. It shouldn't matter. She was nothing to him. She was someone to the other Chris, the ones whose memories he had inherited. Just as with everyone else, she wasn't even the same person. Oh, she looked like her . . . sort of . . . but over two decades of her life were potentially that of someone entirely else. She wasn't the Bianca the other Chris had known.

It should not matter that she was here. She was a stranger to him and he was even more of a stranger to her. He at least knew of a time when they weren't. She didn't. And like so many others that Chris had known, she had been one who had not survived. It would do no good to approach her.

Having decided it was best to just try and pretend he hadn't seen Bianca, Chris headed toward the kitchen. He didn't see Bianca lean over and whisper something to her husband and then stand up. He was almost to the door when something told him to turn around. He did and there she was with her hand raised to try and get his attention.

"Oh."

Unsure what to say and even more unsure why she had approached him, he waited.

"I heard you say your name was Chris."

He nodded.

"Christopher Halliwell?"

He nodded, again.

"I'm Bianca Holbrooke," she informed him. "I need to talk to you."

"I can't imagine what about," he mused aloud, more focused on how uncomfortable he was than on anything else in that moment. A thought came to mind and he gave her an apologetic look. "Is everything all right with your food?"

"It's not about the food," she informed him, sounding slightly annoyed. She glanced around at the busy dining room and shook her head. "Look, this is important. And I can't talk to you here."

"I can't leave here," Chris protested. "I'm the only chef working tonight and I'm in charge."

"You and your brother are being targeted," she whispered. "You can't just ignore that." She sighed before he could respond. "Fine, tell me how to reach your brother and I'll talk to him."

He frowned. "Targeted? By whom?"

She glanced around. "I can't talk to you here."

"And I can't leave," Chris insisted. He sighed and dug his hand into his pocket. He pulled out his cell phone and hoped that unlike the last time he tried to use it, this time it would work.

* * *

It will take a while before Chris knows how to act around her, and that's if he gets that chance. Right now he just has to deal with this day.


	5. Broken Hearts and Painful Recoveries

First a thank you to my reviewers:

helen - Thank you very much.

FirePony16 - I am glad you think I did a good job of portraying Chris in this situation. As to who the next threat will be, that threat has already been mentioned, briefly and will very soon be all too obvious.

weiliya - I look foward to seeing what you think of the continuation of this story.

Joseph Santiago - I'm afraid I will have to disapoint. This story is in no way a romance (unless you count a back story involving two characters unlikely to actually show up in the story.) This is a story about how things can change with even the simplest of actions as one of the later chapters will show. This is also a story showing how I see the Phoenix as portrayed by Charmed. We were given very little actual "facts" about them, so I took those facts and I created what you will see in this story (and potentially others, depending on what I do). Whether I will ever do a Chris/Bianca fic, we will see. I have plans and we will see what becomes of those plans. Keep in mind though, these are _not_ the same people that were in "Chris-Crossed" even if they do bare a resemblance to them and Chris has the memories of that other Chris. They write their own destinies. I do have at least one fic in the works that involves Chris/Bianca, but it will be a long time before I focus on that story with every thing else I am doing.

lizardmomma - I admit I hadn't realized how short it was until I looked at the word count, but at that point I had already figured out where the chapters went, so there really wasn't any changing it. I generally try to keep them longer than that.

TaintedDarkInuShemeeko - That was the first scene I wrote for this story and I wrote it a very long time ago. I forget how long. I'm glad you enjoyed it. On the next chapter it is always interesting to deal with situations where Chris has strong feelings about something that happened in the other time line. It's only been a very short amount of time since he ended up with the two complete sets of memory, somewhere around two months. And Bianca was very much a part of his life in that other time line.

It's always fun to write for Kali, even when she's not in a good mood. I promised one of my readers back maybe a year ago that this was coming, though at the time I didn't know when and I certainly didn't know it would be in a hospital room that my readers would learn about it. I only knew that the events discussed in this chapter had to happen before episode seventeen.

* * *

Chapter Four – Broken Hearts and Painful Recoveries

Kali Nicolae sat at the foot of Wyatt's hospital bed. She had been prattling on and on ever since she had arrived almost an hour before, but she never seemed to get to the point.

Wyatt just watched her, letting her talk. Somehow the migration patterns of birds seemed like a distress call when coming from Kali. The usual sparkle in her eyes was very much absent and Wyatt just didn't know what to say or how to find out what was wrong. So he listened.

Kali sighed and looked down the hospital bed at him. "What do I do?"

Wyatt looked at her surprised. "Well, that depends. Do about what?"

Kali frowned and glanced at the ceiling. After a moment she looked at him, again. "I didn't tell you, did I?"

"Don't think so, Sweetheart."

She heaved in a breath. "Gary and I broke up."

"Oh." He looked at her surprised. "Didn't work out? How come?"

"What is it ever? Magic." She sighed. "Except for a change it wasn't my magic, but his."

"I thought we took care of that," Wyatt commented concerned. "Is he forming fireballs, again?"

Kali shook her head hard. "No, no. I'm not expressing this very well. You remember his sister, Arie?"

"The freaky calm preteen?" Wyatt grinned a bit. "Yeah, I remember her. Some sort of Cryokinetic like Janice, I believe."

"Your cousin Janice?"

He nodded.

Kali considered this. "Why didn't I get informed that another one of your cousins came into their power?"

"Um. . . I don't know. How many of them do you know about?"

Kali gave him a suspicious look. "How many of them have come into their powers?"

"Ladybug, Cilly, Alanna, and Janice. Technically, though, only Cilly came into her powers. The rest of them had them from the moment magic returned."

"So Hope and Hank haven't."

"And . . ." He frowned, thinking. Finally, he said, "Pat and Vicki lost their powers."

"Who and who?" She glared at him. "What kind of secrets are you keeping from me, Wyatt Matthew Halliwell?"

"I've been busy," Wyatt protested. "It hasn't even been a month yet."

"Well, who are they?"

"Aunt Prue's."

Kali looked at him in pure disbelief. "Your Aunt Prue is dead, Wyatt. Dead people don't have kids."

"My Aunt Prue _was_ dead, Kal. That changed last month."

Kali pulled the pillow out from behind Wyatt's back, before he could react and started smacking him with it. "You do _not_ forget to tell me when you get your dead aunt back. You do _not_ do that, Wyatt."

Wyatt threw his hands in front of his face and protested. "Injured guy here. Quit it."

Kali glared at him, but she stopped.

Wyatt breathed a sigh of relief. "I guess I better mention Melinda, too, though I'm beginning to wonder if she wasn't a mirage. I haven't seen her since that day."

Kali looked at him, curious. "Who's Melinda?"

"My sister," he informed her, sounding as if he was testing the word. "In fact if anyone asks, she's my twin sister."

"Your twin!" Kali looked at him startled.

He nodded. "More or less. We share the same birthday and the same parents. We just never shared the same womb."

"I don't think that qualifies you as twins."

"It's going to have to. We can't explain where she really came from."

"Which is?"

Wyatt shook his head. "I don't know what these walls might hear."

Kali laughed at him. "That's a bit too suspicious. These walls don't have listening devices." She sat back on the end of the bed with a bounce.

"Hey!" Wyatt exclaimed, startled. "That hurts."

Kali looked at him surprised. "What hurts?"

Wyatt's eyes grew wide, but he didn't say anything.

Kali got up off the bed. "Wyatt? What's going on?"

"My legs," Wyatt stuttered. "I . . . I . . . . I can feel them."

Kali twirled around and looked down at the bed, then back at him, stunned. "You can? Just like that?"

"I don't know," Wyatt stared down at his legs. "I can't move them, but I can feel them."

An unfamiliar melody interrupted their conversation.

Wyatt frowned and looked around. "Do you hear that?"

Kali looked down at the cell on the nightstand by the window. "I think it's your cell phone."

"Not yours?"

She shook her head.

"But who is it?"

Kali shrugged and picked it up. "I guess if you want to know, you'll have to answer it."

Wyatt took the offered cell phone and flipped it open. "Hello?"

* * *

I'm so glad to have you guys finally catching up and now I have to tell you that I'm working on something else that will take up most of my writing time. It is a Charmed project and I am absolutely sure that it will be amazing. You guys may or may not feel the effect since I am about ten chapters ahead of you, but I will be working on this, especially for the next two and half weeks before we actually start posting. I should have something up on my profile about it before posting starts, so keep an eye out for it.

At any rate the next chapter of this should be fun reading as we find out how the conversation between the two brothers (and those with them) turns out. The villain of this story isn't going to go out without inflicting a considerable amount of damage, so be on the alert for the attacks to start soon.


	6. Random Revelations

First a thank you to my reviewers:

lizardmomma - So am I, very glad that Wyatt has regained something of his feeling in his legs.

FirePony16 - I hope you check it out. I have info about it in my profile. If you have any questions, please feel free to PM me. I welcome them. I wish I had updated soon, but obviously I didn't, so no use looking at the past. I'm glad you enjoyed that chapter and hope you enjoy this one. It was fun to write.

TaintedDarkInuShemeeko - And that's just how they explain her to people who know about magic, but the twin thing is certainly going to remain part of the explanation. I'm not sure when the rest of that will come into play, but I more or less know how they will explain her to people. It has to do with Victor's very brief marriage to a demon and the fact that only family was their when Wyatt was born. Explaining her last name might be a bit more tricky, since unlike her brothers, she's a Wyatt not a Halliwell. Her middle name is Halliwell, but she doesn't intend to deny the last name she has used for her entire life.

Ever tried to have a phone conversation about something important and someone else was talking to you just loud enough to give the person on the other end more information than you wanted them to have?

* * *

Chapter Five - Random Revelations

Chris breathed a sigh of relief as Wyatt answered. "Hey, Wy. It's me. I need you to talk to someone." He looked at Bianca, not sure how to introduce her. "Let's just say I think she's on our side."

"Does _she_ have a name?" Wyatt asked, distracted as Kali looked down at him. "What?"

"Should I get a doctor?"

Wyatt shook his head hard. "Not yet."

"Doctor?" Chris asked from the other end.

"Er." Wyatt scowled at Kali.

"Is that Kali?"

"Yeah, she came to visit me."

"Tell, her hi from me, but first why did she say something about the doctor?"

"Nothing bad," Wyatt assured him. "Don't worry about it. What's going on?"

Chris looked at Bianca and then past her to the couple that had frustrated Emily. He sighed. "You will tell me, but I have to get back to work. The woman I'm giving the phone to is named Bianca Do . . . Holbrooke." _I can't believe I started to say her maiden name. I can't believe she's married._

As it was, Bianca was giving him a curious look.

Chris gave her a nervous smile and shoved his cell into her hand. "My brother's on the other end. Give the phone to one of the staff when you are done talking. I'll be in the kitchen."

Bianca took the phone from him, giving him a slightly confused look. She'd caught the slip and she was going to find out what it meant. How could he possibly know her maiden name?

"Hello?"

"Sorry," she said to the voice on the other end. "This is Bianca Holbrooke," she informed him as she walked toward the entry hall. She stopped long enough to shake her head at Lawrence's unvoiced question. "I take it that this is Wyatt Halliwell?" she asked as she stepped into the hall and past the teenage hostess, Becky Davis. Once she was out of Becky's hearing range she stopped.

"Yes, this is Wyatt." He scowled at Kali as she lifted the blanket at the end of the bed and started poking his feet with her fingers. "Knock that off."

"What?" Bianca asked startled.

"Not you."

"You can feel that?" Kali asked.

"We've established that," Wyatt reminded her. "Now, stop."

"Are you okay?" Bianca asked, concerned.

"More or less," Wyatt informed her glaring Kali down as she backed away from the bed, smile firmly in place. "The not walking thing kind of bites."

"The what?" Bianca asked, startled. _No one mentioned he was lame._

"Nothing, nothing," Wyatt waved Kali away. "Look. Why did my brother want me to talk to you?"

Bianca sighed. "Have you ever heard of a Phoenix?"

"It's a bird, right?"

She closed her eyes. Why didn't anyone ever warn their children about evil Phoenix? "Not quite what I mean."

"In that case what?"

"Let's just say most of them specialize in making sure people don't walk away unless they want them to."

"Cryptic," Wyatt commented. "Would you at least mind telling me if they are bipedal?"

Bianca blinked and then started chuckling. "Right. Sorry. They are magical humans, either witch or warlock."

"Okay and why are you telling me about them?"

"Simple," she informed him. "One of them has been hired to see you and your brother dead."

"Hired," he groaned. He'd been hearing that word a lot lately. He sighed. "And who are you?"

"I'm one of them," she admitted. "It's something your born into, but for me my life took a very different twist than most, so I'm here to protect you."

Wyatt was silent for a moment. He sighed. "And why should I trust you?"

"Because I'm very good at what I do, but Vera is better and you need to know what you are up against."

* * *

I am so sorry about this. I meant to update much sooner than this. I have been spending my spare writing time working on that other Charmed project I mentioned. If you want to know what I'm talking about I put into in my profile about it. I hope to get it on here eventually, but for now, that's what I can offer. A few weeks ago one of my co-authors realized that at the rate we were going it would take us eight years to write our series.

At any rate I will get the next chapter to you sooner. Piper is arriving at the hospital and she's about to learn something of what's going on.


	7. Testing Qualms

First a thank you to my reviewers:

FirePony16 - I hope to hear what you think when you do check out TGaO. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter and found it funny. That was what I was going for, well that and getting some info to the characters, but not everything is orderly and I didn't want this to be.

lizardmomma - How he explains knowing her maiden name. . . hmm. I'm sure she'll ask eventually, but she hasn't yet in what I've written. Considering the chapter I did just write, which is several chapters away and is still with my beta (who likely is busy right now) I think he might actually tell her something, not the whole story, but something of it.

TaintedDarkInuShemeeko - Definitely tricky, somethings more than others. And goodness . . . you guys don't even know the complications to come. Posting varies from site to site, but there are other sites ahead of this one and things are going to get complicated for both brothers, but especially for Chris . . . or is it especially for Wyatt. Hmm. Does Wyatt win that because the police are involved? Or Chris because nonmagical person almost got involved in a magical battle? I guess you guys will just have to let me know when we get there.

When writing the last episode I got rather obsessed with monkeys, or more specifically "Astral Monkey" and the character of Dr. Curtis Williamson. Since Wyatt is still in the hospital, this is continued here as it is something that bothered Piper considerable at the time (at least throughout that episode) and I think now that it is on her mind it will remind while his look-a-like nephew is around.

* * *

Chapter Six – Testing Qualms

Piper Halliwell had been to San Francisco Memorial every day for almost a week visiting her son. Usually she was with her husband, Leo Wyatt. It was a new and very unwelcome experience to have a child in the hospital. Growing up, their boys had gotten into scrapes like any other child, but never anything warranting a hospital stay. Piper had her own reasons for avoiding hospitals and half of them involved the very dead uncle of the very alive doctor who had cornered her once more.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Halliwell," Dr. Curtis Williamson Darrin said, standing in her way, "but there has been a new development in your son's case and we are going to have to run some tests. You can talk to him for a few minutes, but then everyone must leave."

"What happened?" Piper asked, half terrified.

Dr. Darrin must have seen the look in her eyes, because he was quick to assure her. "Nothing bad. No, this is actually good. Your son has gained some feeling in his legs. We are hoping that this is only a sign of what's to come. Nerves don't normally grow back, so if that's what is happening your son is very lucky in deed. We'll have to . . ."

"No tests," Piper stopped him.

Dr. Darrin frowned. "Why? We need to find out what the extent of this recovery is."

"Fine. Do what is needed to get my son the care he needs, but I will not let you make him a guinea pig." _And I won't let you turn out like your uncle. I won't._ And he was so much like his uncle, that if he made it his quest to see what was allowing Wyatt to heal, he might just end up like his uncle. Dead. And that she would not allow.

His frown remained as he considered her. "I will take that under advisement, but any decisions will have to be your son's. He's an adult and fully conscious."

"He will tell you exactly what I am," she informed him. "No tests beyond what is needed for his care."

"Why don't I let you go see your son before we get those tests started? I won't do anything without your son's consent unless it is needed."

Piper nodded. "Thank you."

"What did he want?" Leo asked as he came up behind her.

She looked back at him. "That bad finding a parking spot?"

Leo nodded. "Is everything all right with Wyatt?"

"Quite all right," she agreed. "He's miraculously started regrowing nerves or something like that."

Leo's eyes widened. "That's not normal."

"Nope." Piper shook her head. "Still I'm glad. And if this is natural. . ."

"That's unlikely."

"But if it is."

"If it is or if it isn't, I will be glad if he walks, again," Leo commented.

And when it came down to it, that was the most important thing to Piper, too. Except making sure that this did not become the downfall of another man who only wanted to do good and help people.

* * *

I have been rather busy and that doesn't excuse not posting chapters I have already completed and I actually managed to complete two full chapters, one of them about four or five times the length of this one (quite possibly the longest Charmed chapter I have ever written . . . we will not compare this to the chapters in "The Rengades" as that is entirely different and handwritten so I have no clue how long that were word wise). The longer chapter should be rather interesting to find peoples responses to as it deals entirely on Chris telling Wyatt about his relationship in the other time line, not everything mind you, but he's much more open than he normally is about the topic.

The next chapter of this story involves Bianca and Piper coming face to face with each other and neither is too happy about it.


	8. Confronting the Past

First a thank you to my reviewer:

TaintedDarkInuShemeeko - I admit it's going to be tough to extract Wyatt from the hospital without a lot of questions. And it will be even harder for him to find out what actually happened to him. In fact he's not going to find that out until years later when I stuborn person insists that the same kind of thing happened to her and that she knows exactly why. It's possible he might suspect before then, but he won't know. A lot can happen between now and then, oh so much. The hospital is about to get a bit more . . . interesting. Enjoy

Well, you about to get a view of some of original Phoenix. You've heard Ashlyn's name, but here you get to meet her. And you also get to meet this episode's main villain.

* * *

Chapter Seven – Confronting the Past

Piper pushed open the hospital room where Wyatt was staying and entered, with Leo right behind her. She smiled at the sight of Kali sitting in the chair next to the bed. "Hi, Kali."

Kali grinned. "Hello, Mrs. Halliwell, Mr. Wyatt. Did you hear?"

Piper nodded. "I heard Wyatt is getting feeling back in his legs. How are you doing, Wyatt?"

"Pretty good, I guess. My legs are a bit cramped, but after no feeling for a week, I'm just glad to feel anything."

"Any idea what happened?"

Wyatt shook his head. "Sorry, Dad. Unless Kali sitting on my legs gave their feeling back I have no idea."

Leo chuckled. "Doubtful."

The door pushed open and a woman in a nurse's uniform walked in pushing a cart. She looked surprised to see so many people, but she smiled. "It's about time for everyone to leave so we can start those tests."

Wyatt wrinkled up his nose.

She laughed. "They aren't that bad, but I do need to give you a shot."

Wyatt groaned. "No shots, please."

"Sorry, not optional. I need you to roll your sleeve up." She started pulling things off her cart, preparing to give him the shot.

"I'd probably better leave," Kali commented as she stood.

The door pushed opened and all eyes turned to look as Bianca walked in.

Piper's eyes widened as she recognized her. She waved her arms and Leo and Kali quit moving. "What exactly do you think you are doing here?" she asked in a shrill offensive voice.

Bianca ignored her, looking beyond her to the nurse getting ready to give Wyatt a shot. "Vera!"

Wyatt recognized the name from their phone conversation and realizing this must be Bianca, he raised his shield.

Piper whirled around and saw that the nurse was still moving. She saw Wyatt's shield up and the scowl on Vera Delavan's face.

Vera's eyes met Bianca's. She grabbed a scalpel off the cart and threw it end over end at Piper.

Piper's eyes widened and she waved her hands, focusing on the scalpel. Since she was focusing on the scalpel, the rest of the room unfroze, but the scalpel froze a few inches from her face. Piper reached out and grabbed the scalpel, as Vera vanished from next to Wyatt.

Vera reappeared and made a grab for the scalpel, but it wasn't there. She felt the blade against her neck and looked at Piper.

"I don't make the same mistake twice," Piper hissed. Before she could do anything else Vera vanished with black smoke swirling around her. Piper scowled and turned to look at Bianca. "Why are you here?"

Bianca frowned, not understanding the hostility. "I'm here because she was hired to see him and his brother dead."

"Why does someone keep hiring people to come after us?" Wyatt said as he dropped his shield and pushed himself up.

Before anyone could respond, the door pushed open once more and Lawrence came in with his and Bianca's daughter, Ashlyn, in his arms.

"Daddy stopped moving!" Ashlyn exclaimed as she grabbed for Bianca, laughter in her voice.

Bianca pulled her daughter into her arms. She turned to face Wyatt. "I assume you are Wyatt Halliwell."

He nodded.

"I'm sorry, but I have no answer for your question. I only know that someone did hire her."

"Why are _you_ here?" Piper repeated.

Bianca looked at her, really looked at her.

Behind her Lawrence stiffened. "What is your problem? My wife is trying to help here and you keep accusing her of something. Why don't you just tell us what problem you have and get it behind us?"

Bianca gasped. "You!" She starred at Piper shocked. "You're the one who tried to kill my mom."

Lawrence did a double take. "She did what?"

"When I was a little girl, not much older than Ashlyn," Bianca informed him softly. "She came over to our house with another woman and mom sent me out of the room. I didn't listen. I kept the door opened a crack and watched. That woman blew my mom up."

Lawrence groaned. "Was this before or after your mom moved you guys out of the community?"

Bianca frowned. After a moment, she said, "Before. I remember, because later that same day that woman came. The one I told you about. She was bordering on rude, demanding things from mom." She frowned and looked up at Piper. "She looked like me, like I do now. Is that why you are annoyed to see me despite never having met me?"

"She didn't look like you," Piper informed her. "She was . . ."

Leo stopped her with a look. "No, Piper."

Having figured out what his mom was going to say, Wyatt echoed the words, but not the meaning. "No, Mom."

Piper looked at him, as if she had forgotten him.

"She wasn't."

"How would you know?" Piper returned, looking at Bianca wearily.

"It's like Chris is always saying," he told her. "That wasn't me. That wasn't him. And this. That wasn't her. That's all there is to it. She's someone entirely else."

"This is different."

"Mom, I may not know a lot about what happened there, and I assume that's what this is about, but I know that it was very different. No one from there is the same as who they became here. They just aren't."

"From where?" Bianca asked, confused.

Piper sighed. "Fine. I'll give her a chance, but I'm not dropping my guard."

"She's here to see me," Wyatt announced. "And before the real doctors come for these tests they want to do on me, I think I need to hear what she has to say. The threat is clearly real."

Piper looked at Bianca and her family, taking in Lawrence and Ashlyn's presence for the first time, and then over to her son with Kali hovering at the foot of the bed. Finally she looked at her husband at her side. She sighed. "All right, but I'm staying."

Kali looked at Wyatt. "I'd stay too, but I'm afraid I really do have to go. I promised Mom that since I would be in town I would have dinner with her and I have to get going or I'll be late."

Wyatt reached up and gave her a hug. "It will be okay."

She nodded. "I know. It's just not how I'd hoped things would go."

"Don't hesitate to come over if you need to talk and don't let me ever forget what your ring tone sounds like."

Kali laughed at the reference to his not recognizing Chris' ring tone earlier. "In his defense you share an apartment. He really doesn't have a reason to call you most of the time."

Wyatt chuckled. "Still, he doesn't use that phone."

"See you later." She grinned as she headed toward the door. She stopped and offered Ashlyn a smile. "Hi, I'm Kali."

Ashlyn ducked her head against her mom's shoulder.

Kali smiled. She met Bianca's eyes and without the slightest change in her tone she said, "You better be here to help." And then she walked away.

Bianca watched her bewildered. She stepped all the way into the room and walked over to where she could lean against a wall. "Looks like when I'm done I want to know what this story is. For now though, I will tell you what I know about what's going on."

* * *

I hope you enjoyed the chapter and your introduction to Vera. The next chapter was interesting to write. It is about what happened as a result of Bianca (during "Chris Crossed") telling her mother not to tell her you feel nothing when you kill. Curious?


	9. What She Said

First a thank you to my reviewer:

TaintedDarkInuShemeeko - In that case, here you go. I hope you like it.

When I watched "Chris Crossed" one line stuck out more than others. This chapter explains the direction I decided to take those words and how they effected the life of young Bianca. I hope that you enjoy the chapter.

* * *

Chapter Eight – What She Said

"That woman you hold so much in scorn, whoever she was had a profound effect on my mom," Bianca began. "I don't know what you know about Phoenix, but for the most part they are assassins."

Piper scowled.

Bianca sighed and continued. "My mom was no different, though I never saw her kill anyone, not for years and even then it was only once. I understand she slowed down when I was born and when we lost my father, she stopped, for a while at least. She finally decided that he wasn't coming back and changing for him would do no good. Then, you guys showed up, followed by that woman. We moved a week later."

"How come?" Wyatt asked from his bed.

Bianca frowned. "I'm not really sure. She said she needed time to think. She went back to what she'd done before, accepting contracts and killing people." She shuddered.

Lawrence put his arms around her.

She nodded. "Eventually I found out. And one day when I was eleven I asked her about it. She froze in her tracks and looked at me."

Piper started to say something, but Leo stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. She sighed.

"She stared at me as if she wasn't even seeing me. She sank down onto the couch and stared into the distance as if remembering something.

* * *

_Lynn Donchi stared at her young daughter, remembering the words that the future version of her daughter had said when she'd asked if there wasn't anything she could do to help._ Yeah. Someday when I ask you what it feels like to kill, don't lie to me. Don't tell me you don't feel a thing.

_Lynn never knew what become of that young woman. She only knew that she never saw her, again. Now, the question had come and she didn't know how to handle it._

_"What does it feel like to kill, Mommy?"_

_Lynn looked at her startled. "Where did that come from, Bianca?"_

_"I saw you, Mommy," Bianca told her. "That man. He looked surprised."_

_Lynn hugged her daughter against her chest. "Bianca, honey. You weren't supposed to see that."_

_Bianca looked up with sad eyes. "It's bad isn't it?"_

_"It's what I do, sweetie," Lynn told her._

_"Was he a bad man?"_

_Lynn started to shake her head. She stopped and sighed. "Bianca, you don't want to go there."_

_"Nina said I'm supposed to follow in your footsteps."_

_"You can do whatever you want."_

_They were words no Phoenix child ever heard._

_"You can make your own choices."_

_"Did Daddy choose?"_

_Lynn's eyes slid shut. "I don't know. Sweetheart, I don't know what your daddy did. He just left."_

_"Was it because you killed someone?"_

_"This is a very grown-up conversation we are having."_

_"I need to know, Mommy. If I'm supposed to do what you do, I need to know."_

Don't tell me you don't feel a thing.

_Lynn shook her head. "You don't need to know. You don't need to have anything to do with what I do. I don't want you to."_

_"Then tell me, Mommy," Bianca insisted. "If you don't want me to, why do you?"_

_"Because it's what I do," Lynn told her. "It's what I was brought up to do, since I was younger than you."_

_"Then, why shouldn't I?" Bianca asked. It didn't seem all that strange that they were calmly discussing why her mom had killed a man in cold blood. It somehow seemed normal._

_"Because, every time I killed someone a piece of me died, until there is nothing left." Lynn informed her, collapsing onto the couch, pulling her preteen daughter with her. "Because every time you look at someone who bares even the remotest resemblance to someone you killed you see them again and you see them go down and you feel sick to your stomach."_

_Bianca stared at her, her eyes confused. "Then, why, Mommy? Why do it? Why not stop?"_

_"Because it's all I know."_

* * *

Bianca remembered the hopelessness in her mother's voice as she said that. She looked up at Piper. "When I asked why she didn't lie, why she didn't try glorify it or make it better, all she told me was that she promised when I asked she wouldn't lie."

Lawrence hugged his arms tight around his wife and daughter.

"I told myself, I would never get in that situation, but I soon learned for me, there had to be more. I wasn't in a position to ignore the call to kill, so I didn't." She looked Piper in the eyes as she added, "I learned to stop them."

* * *

So what do you think? The next chapter is called "Blood in the Kitchen". Things are about to get dangerous.


	10. Blood in the Kitchen

First a thank you to my reviewer:

TaintedDarkInuShemeeko - I'm glad that you liked the way I did that. I thought it would be cool if Bianca's words to her mom made a difference. And I like the idea that Lynn was a mom first, even if she was a killer, too.

There's action in this chapter as Vera is on the attack.

* * *

Chapter Nine – Blood in the Kitchen

Ever since Bianca and her family had left Chris hadn't been able to drop a feeling of unease. He didn't know how many times he had almost picked up the phone to call his mom and ask if there was anyone who could come in for him. He wanted to know what was going on, why she wanted to talk to him and Wyatt. The only thing that stopped him was the knowledge that Callie wouldn't run a shift and Drinka wouldn't cook, which meant the only person he could really call was his mom and she needed to be with Wyatt more than he did.

He let out a breath and forced his attention back to the stove where he was finishing a meal. He glanced toward the door wondering when it would open letting someone in. All night Ty, Emily, Chelsea, and the rest of the waiting staff had been in and out of the kitchen with orders. It seemed that the time was slowing down with every minute that ticked by.

If he didn't know better he would think that someone had cast a spell on the clock or something. And while in his world that wasn't impossible, it was also ridiculous. Why would anyone cast a spell on a clock?

"Dreaming, Mr. Chef?" an amused voice asked from behind him.

Chris turned around and cast a sheepish look at Emily. "Sorry, just worried about my brother."

"He'll get better," she told him confidently. "You'll see."

He gave her a half smile. "I wish I had your confidence. It's been almost a week with no sign of recovery. And frankly the doctors seem less hopeful with every day."

Emily shrugged. "That's doctors for you, always giving you the worst case scenario in case something goes wrong. Besides I thought you said he was doing better."

"Well, that's pretty easy to do," Chris retorted. "He is no longer bleeding to death."

Emily's eyes widened and her lips twitched. "Oh. Well, that's good to know. It would be highly uncomfortable to be bleeding to death for almost a week."

Chris stared at her, unsure what to think. Unbidden, a tiny chuckle escaped his lips. "Okay, point taken."

"No other signs of improvement?"

_Nothing bad. Don't worry about it._

Wyatt's words earlier forced their way to the front of his thoughts. "I don't know. He said something earlier and I think that's bugging me. I don't know what he meant."

Emily looked at him thoughtfully. After several seconds, she spoke. "Look, there are no new customers in the dining room, so after you finish those up for me, I'll take them out and you'll have a chance to breath. Why don't you use that to call your brother and find out exactly what he did mean?"

Chris looked at her oddly. "You seem pretty clear headed. I don't know why I didn't think of that. I usually think pretty clearly." He took one of the pans off the stove and grabbing a plate, started transferring the contents to it.

Emily just shrugged. "Hey, if this was one of my brothers I doubt I'd be thinking too clearly either. Since it just so happens that my brothers are both safe and sound at the moment, I'm not too stressed. You on the other hand have a lot on your mind." She grabbed a platter and started placing the plates on it. When she finished she grinned at him and headed out of the room without a word.

Chris let out a huge breath and carried the pans over to the sink, wondering how to broach the question with his brother. Why wasn't this easy?

Behind him a figure shimmered into the room. She eyed all the knives in the room and grabbed one into her gloved hand, pushing her athemé back into its sheath. Without a sound she crept up behind Chris, who was pulling out his cell phone. Still without a sound she lifted the knife and stabbed.

At the last second something alerted Chris and he whirled around, not about to orb when for all he knew it was Emily. The movement avoided the worst of it, but the knife still stabbed deep into his side, cutting a deep gash into him. He squashed down the scream of pain that wanted to escape his mouth and focused on Vera.

Even though she had injured him, she was annoyed that she hadn't hit anything vital. She stabbed at him, again.

Holding his side, as blood seeped steadily out, Chris barely avoided the knife. As more blood poured out of him he was beginning to feel the effects in other places besides his side. His head was spinning, but not so much so that he missed the sound of the swinging doors from the dining room being pushed open. Ignoring his pain, he waved his hand at the door forcing it into the face of the person trying to enter.

Thankful that the door distracted his attacker, too, he ignored the explanation from the dining hall that appeared to belong to Ty. He figured he had only a few seconds before Ty tried the door, again. That wasn't enough time to fight off his attacker. He had to end this attack before someone innocent got hurt. With his free hand he felt behind him for some sort of weapon. There was no way he'd be able to focus enough to use his powers.

Sure enough the door swung open and Ty started in, mumbling as he went, "Who knew that doors attacked people . . ." He spotted Chris trying to fend off Vera and he went white as a sheet.

Vera sent Ty and annoyed look and Chris took his opportunity. He slammed a pot he'd grabbed right into her head. She went down hard, but she wasn't knocked out. She glared at him and out of the view of the stunned Ty, she shimmered out.

Chris forced himself to stay conscious. He was not going to the hospital and the only way to prevent that was to stay conscious and convince Ty he didn't need to.

"Where is she?" Ty asked as he came around the counter to look at Chris worried. Seeing the blood on the floor, he grimaced.

"Who?" Chris asked, not because he didn't know, but because he wanted to know what Ty knew.

"The woman attacking you," Ty responded, looking around. "Where is she?"

"I don't know," Chris replied, honestly. He knew how she had vanished, but not where she was.

It was then that Ty finally realized where the blood on the floor was coming from. "Oh my word! She got you?"

"I'll be okay," Chris tried to assure him. "I think there are gauze pads in my mom's office. Get those please."

Ty hesitated, but one last glance at Chris' side and he ran into Piper's office.

* * *

_"Who wrote it?" Chris asked, peering over his father's shoulder._

_Leo looked at the bottom of the page. "No name. Try calling Josias, Chris."_

_"Huh?" Chris looked at his father confused. "Why?"_

_"If he's still a whitelighter, he might be able to tell us something."_

_"So?" Chris still didn't get it. "He's not my whitelighter. He wouldn't hear me."_

_Leo smiled slightly. "You're half elder."_

_Chris stared at his father blankly. "You want me to try and elder jingle a whitelighter?"_

_Leo nodded._

_

* * *

_Chris had been stunned when it had worked. And now maybe he needed it to work again. I guess I need a whitelighter, but who to call? I only know a handful of them and I already know I can't call Hank and Aunt Paige ignores the elders. And I doubt Josias would be very happy to hear from me.

Chris' train of thought was interrupted by Ty's return. He approached Chris and asked, "Want some help with that?"

Chris shook his head and reached out his clean hand for the gauze. "What I want is for you to let the guests know that due to an incident in the kitchen we will not be serving anything else tonight. And don't let the staff in here."

"What about the police?"

"Don't call them."

"But why? She injured you."

"Please, Ty. Just tell the girls that I was injured and while I will be all right we are going to close early."

"But is it true?" Ty persisted, not liking this one bit. "Will you be all right?"

I will be if I can get help soon, Chris thought as he nodded. He held out his free hand for the gauze, and then changed his mind. "Just put the gauze on the counter there, and I will take care of binding this wound."

"Don't be ridiculous," Ty told him with a frown. "You need help with that."

"What I need is for you to keep the rest of the staff out of here, especially Emily and Becky."

"Becky would never leave her post so far as to enter the kitchen."

"Well, Emily then. I know Chelsea can handle blood, but . . ."

"Their age is not a hindrance you know," Ty insisted.

"Perhaps not, but it doesn't mean they should be exposed to it if it can be avoided, and I seem to bleed a lot."

Ty stared at him for several seconds, but it was the sound of footsteps that decided it for him. He ran toward the door, dropping the unopened package of gauze on the floor in front of Chris, and pushed it open. "Sorry, Chelsea, kitchen's closed."

Chris didn't hear Chelsea's answer, but watched momentarily as Ty took charge of the dining room from the kitchen door. As soon as the door swung shut before him he closed his eyes and focused on the power he hadn't wanted when he discovered it almost two months before. He focused his thoughts on finding a certain whitelighter and then called her name. "Mikelle!"

Mikelle Zealand orbed in seconds later. She took in the scene and looked at Chris. "Should I ask?"

"Heal first, please," Chris requested, "and just me, not my clothes or clean up the blood. Just me."

Mikelle raised an eyebrow. "Interesting."

Chris glared at her. "Mikelle."

Mikelle got down on her knees next to him and held her hands over his wound. They glowed gold and the gaping wound in his side healed up. "Any more strange requests?"

"Someone saw my wound," Chris offered by way of explanation.

Mikelle nodded as if that explained everything. "Mortal?"

Chris nodded.

"Wouldn't it be easier just to dust them?" she asked curious.

Chris frowned, at first trying to figure out what she was talking about and then realizing just frowning deeper. "Dust? As in memory dust?"

Mikelle nodded.

Chris stopped and gave it fair consideration and then shook his head. "No, I can't use that as an easy fix. Besides it can be dangerous. You never know how much they will forget and what. What if I used too much? No, that needs to be a last resort only."

Mikelle nodded. The smile on her face was a little suspicious. "All right. I will be on my way then."

"Mikelle?"

"Hmm?"

"How are my aunt and her family adjusting?"

Mikelle smiled. "If you mean Prue, Andy, and the girls, they are doing good, but they'd be doing better if they got phone calls from more than just Ben and your mom."

Chris chuckled. "I'll keep that in mind."

"Be careful," she warned before orbing out.

He looked down at the gauze on the floor where it had dropped and frowned. And it stays on how? Magically? He got to his feet and sighed as he walked toward his mom's office after some medical tape to keep the gauze in place.

* * *

Chris had better be careful with magic at work. Fortunately Ty didn't see anything magical and no one was perminately hurt.

Want to know who's behing Vera's attacks? Well, your about to find out in "The Assassin's Lair".


	11. The Assassin’s Lair

First a thank you to my reviewer:

TaintedDarkInuShemeeko - Definitely action packed. There is certainly more to come including more fights some brotherly bonding when Chris gets chatty and talks to his brother about some of the events in the other time line. For now there, let's just go to the next chapter.

Let's just say I was aiming for creepy with this one. Let me know how I did.

* * *

Chapter Ten – The Assassin's Lair

Vera's basement was a frightening place. Some people had animal heads mounted on the walls of their den or some other room. Vera had human heads mounted on the walls of her basement. It was somehow soothing to her to see the evidence of her many successes. Since there was no space to contain the heads of all her victims, she chose only the most important and then magically severed their heads from their bodies.

Dark lights swirled around and formed into Vera as she returned home, annoyed at the temporary setback. She walked over to the sink and grabbed the towel off the rack, then over to the refrigerator and pulled open the freezer. Ignoring all the magical elements that were of no use to her purpose, she made a pouch out of the towel and started stacking ice cubes in it. When it was full she held her make shift ice pack against the growing bump on her head.

"I hate witches," she mumbled under her breath, "but I certainly never thought one would get the drop on me with a frying pan."

"Don't be surprised," a voice from the shadows recommended. A man with dark blond hair walked out of the shadows, revealing Steve Kessler, a warlock waging slow, deliberate war on the two Halliwell brothers. "Many have tried to beat them and their family. Many have failed."

"You again," Vera scowled at him. "Look. I took your commission. I will get it done."

"Not if you get distracted."

She chose to ignore him. "I didn't catch your name."

"I didn't give it," Steve replied. "I hired you to do a job and you are handling it quite ineptly. Never let yourself get distracted."

"I prefer to only kill my target. No money in killing anyone else. Exposing magic to mortals just doesn't appeal, so the only other option is to kill them and you just aren't paying me enough for that."

"If you have to kill a mortal to keep from being exposed, let me know and I'll pay you more. Just get the job done." Steve looked her in the eye. "You do that and I will reward you beyond what I promised. Just get it done."

Vera glared back at him. "I always get the job done. And this time I'll even through in something for free. I feel like it's time to add a new head to my wall."

Steve looked over the myriad heads on her wall. "And what head is that?"

"The head of the only Phoenix who ever dared try to assassinate the assassin."

* * *

As you can tell, Vera is not a nice lady, ever. Due to a conversation with another Charmed fan we decided that Vera (and her daughter, Nina, who will come up in conversation) is an evil witch, not a warlock. She will be refered to on occation as a warlock, but that is because the characters refering to her as such think she is. Steve is a warlock. I hope that isn't too confusing. This has to do with the warlock's lack of ability to bleed (which apparently didn't exist during the first episode of Charmed) and some other related points, but she can qualify for the definition of evil witch that I have read.


	12. Explanations and Decisions

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Piperspeanut - Good to hear from you hear again, though I certainly loved all the reviews on my site even better. Always great to hear that someone loves what I wrote.

Chris has some expaining to do as one of his coworkers comes back into the kitchen before he's gotten cleaned up.

* * *

Chapter Eleven – Explanations and Decisions

Chris had somehow managed to tape gauze on his side under his torn shirt. Then he had cleaned up the area around the wound. He knew technically he was supposed to clean it first, but he figured it didn't matter, since the gauze was basically a disguise. Or more accurately, a lie, but he kept trying to ignore that. He didn't know Ty that well, but he had the impression that if this guy was told his secret, he wasn't going to take it well.

He surveyed the blood spilled on the ground, his blood, and sighed. _Personal gain. Personal gain. No magical cleanup._ He heaved in a sigh and went looking for the mop.

He had cleaned up most of the blood when the door swung open and in walked Emily. "You okay?"

Chris looked up surprised. "I thought I told Ty to keep everyone else out."

Emily shrugged. "Becky has him occupied. She is more than a little worried. I sneaked back. I wanted to see how you were." She looked at the blood still on his shirt. "How'd you get cut up?"

"A knife."

"Accident?"

Chris shook his head. "Look, I'd rather not talk about it," he told her when she opened her mouth to ask. He stared at her for several seconds. "Since your back here, want to help me clean up."

"If this wasn't an accident, then assuming you aren't suicidal, someone did this. Doesn't that make this a crime scene?"

_Doesn't just about every time my family fights a demon, warlock, or whatever mean they have disturbed a crime scene?_ Chris sighed. _On the other hand since we are fighting against the magical, don't we kind of qualify as the magical police? So doesn't that make this my crime scene?_ He looked over at Emily. Her bright eyes looking back to him where rather unnerving. "I'm the only one hurt. I will fine. Don't press it." _Probably doesn't make it my crime scene, but none of it is anything I can explain to her._

She frowned and looked around. "And how do I know that?"

"What?" Chris looked at her confused.

"How do I know that you were the only one hurt?"

Chris scowled. "Look, I was attacked. I was sliced at with a knife that was intended not to injure me, but to end me. I'm not saying I didn't fight back. I . . . Look, nothing I did to the intruder is going to cause lasting harm."

"And what did you do?"

Chris heaved in a deep breath, then another. "I hit the intruder with a pan."

Emily blinked and looked at him, surprise in her eyes. "You did what?"

"It was the only thing I could get my hands on," he informed her, indignant.

"Those things can cause a lot of damage."

"So can knives."

She looked at him and looked around. "You really should let the police handle this."

Chris shook his head. "If you are going to argue with me, then you are going to need to leave."

"The intruder could come back, and you don't know what they were after," she argued worried. "If they were trying to steal something."

"She was after me," Chris snapped without thinking. Realizing what he said, his eyes widened.

Emily stared at him for several long seconds. "But why? Why would someone want you dead?"

Chris didn't say anything.

"Chris, answer me."

Still he said nothing.

"Chris, answer me. Why doesn't someone want you dead?"

"I don't know," he finally insisted. "It makes no sense." _I'm just me. I'm not mom or one of her sisters. I'm not Wy. I'm just me. I'm insignificant._

"You don't know?" After he shook his head, she added, "You have to go to the police."

"No, I don't," Chris informed her. "I won't. And neither will you."

"Why not?"

"You saw nothing, and anything you say will be hearsay unless I back you up. I won't."

She stared at him, a little stunned. It was almost a minute before anyone said anything. They both knew whoever spoke next lost.

"All right."

"What?"

"Let's get this place cleaned up."

Chris starred at her, stunned. "I don't understand."

"I'm helping you." She paused, considering her next words carefully. "I don't know why, but something says I should, so you'd better be in the right here."

Without waiting for his response Emily went off in search of cleaning supplies.

* * *

I hope everyone found that chapter interesting and I look foward to hearing what you have to say about it. The next chapter will be posted after I have at least one review. For those of you wanting to read this faster, the entire story is posted on my site, the link to which can be found on my homepage. This story can be read by nonmembers. The next episode is partially posted as well, but it can only be read by members until it is completed. Well, until it is completely posted. I have completed writing it as well. In addition I am almost completely finished with the episode after that. I will post just as fast as I notice reviews from my readers here. I hope to hear from you soon.


	13. Speed Dial

First a thank you to my reviewer:

gabrieldarke - Like with piperspeanut, it is really good to hear from you again. I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter. About Emily, I will have to say wait and see. I can tell you that she won't find anything magical out this episode. And I will volunteer that she's in for a shock in the next episode. Actually, I guess since you've been reading _Imaginary Fiends (and Real Friends)_ I can't really keep that a secret. There are a very telling flashback in that story that tell you exactly what she does and doesn't know about magic. One of those is from _A Brother's Bond_ a story that takes place just before that story. You can find it in chapter 57 (Remembering the Dead).

As promised, a new chapter as soon as I noticed a review.

* * *

Chapter Twelve – Speed Dial

Dr. Darrin came into Wyatt's room to find it well overloaded with guests. "Everyone out. It's time to do those tests."

Bianca's eyes held panic. "What if . . ?"

"Don't worry," Wyatt told her. "I know what to look for now."

"You won't be able to. . ." Piper's voice trailed off as she caught Dr. Darrin given them a confused look.

"I'll be fine." He turned his head to look at Dr. Darrin. "Still no movement that I can tell of, but I need you to promise me two things before I can convince them to leave."

"I can't make any promises, and if they don't leave, I'll call security."

"You don't want to do that. Just make these promises and they will leave." Wyatt gave his mom a look of affection. "They are just worried about me."

"No promises."

"They aren't that hard," Wyatt assured him.

"I'm listening."

"I want you to promise that no matter what you are doing you don't put me out. I need to be conscious."

"This could be very painful now that you are getting the feeling back in your legs," Dr. Darrin informed him. "It may not be, but the potential is there."

Wyatt nodded. "I realize that. All the same I need to be fully conscious or else I need someone from my family allowed in the room."

"Is that the other promise?"

"No, the other promise is that you have to personally conduct any test that involves touching me."

"Those are generally conducted by the nurses."

Wyatt heaved in a deep breath. "On the ground to the left of my bed is a needle with some sort of serum. I don't know what it is, but I can pretty much guarantee that if you test it you will find the contents to be something that would kill someone if they were injected with it. Right now I am very apprehensive about letting anyone I don't know anywhere near me."

Dr. Darrin walked around the bed and looked at the needle lying unmoving on the ground. "Where did that come from?"

"I really couldn't say, but unless you give me both of those promises I am going to just have to refuse treatment, completely."

"That's a bit extreme. If something we are doing could actually allow you to walk again . . ."

"Then, it is already doing whatever it is that will get me there. This morning I could feel nothing. Now, I have almost complete feeling back. I can't move, but I can feel. That's an incredible amount of progress in a small amount of time. I know that it is. I also know someone tried to kill me and that's not a good feeling. I just don't want to give that person another chance."

Dr. Darrin looked at the determined face of his patient and around the room at Leo and Piper, then at the Holbrookes. He sighed as he and turned back to Leo and Piper. "I will call you up if we need him to go under."

"And the other?"

Dr. Darrin was silent as he looked at those in the room. "Don't touch that syringe. The police will want to look at it."

"Police?" Piper gasped.

"Mrs. Halliwell, your son said someone attacked him," Dr. Darrin reminded her. "I'm obligated to call the police."

"That is your choice I suppose," Wyatt admitted, not liking it, "but I'd rather not deal with them, again."

"Someone tried to kill you once," Dr. Darrin reminded him. "That's why you are here. Now, you say someone tried, again."

Wyatt sighed. "Fine, but not until you get your tests over."

"They can talk to you after the tests, but I'm calling them as soon as I leave this room." He turned to look at Lawrence and Bianca. "I'm sorry, but you are going to have to stay until the police talk to you."

"Why?" The question came from Ashlyn. She looked at him from her mother's arms. "I want butterflies."

Confused, Dr. Darrin looked at her. "Butterflies?"

"We had planned to see a movie about butterflies," Lawrence explained. "Our plans were changed. I'm afraid the change was lost on my daughter." He held out his hand. "Lawrence Holbrooke, if that interests you to know. This is my wife, Bianca, and our daughter Ashlyn. I figure if the police are going to be interviewing us I should let you know who you are dealing with."

Dr. Darrin frowned. "I don't understand. What do you mean who I am dealing with?"

Lawrence smiled. "You'll see." He pulled out his cell phone. "Fill free to use this to call the police, hit eight pound to get the chief of police's direct line . . . wait, that's for Oakland. Nine pound for San Francisco. I should warn you, they will be wondering what you did with me, whichever one you call."

Dr. Darrin stared at the phone. "Why do you have the chief of police for two cities on speed dial?"

"Five cities between my cell phone and my wife's."

"But why?"

"Well, two of them are my brothers, one's a cousin, and the two on my wife's cell were in her sorority in college." Lawrence chuckled. "You should see some of the other numbers she has on speed dial."

Dr. Darrin relaxed slightly. "So if I called the San Francisco police chief?"

"That's my baby brother, Sheldon Holbrooke, though he's only acting chief. The real chief is on leave." When Dr. Darrin made no move to take the offered cell phone Lawrence shrugged. "Have it your way." He punched in some numbers and everyone watched with varied emotions, from curiosity to annoyance, as he waited for the phone to be answered. And when it was no one heard the other side of the conversation as he only said, "Sheldon, it's me." He listened for several seconds making some sound that sounded like affirmation and then, "I will see you shortly." He chuckled. "Right, Memorial. Yes, a hospital. No, we are all fine. No, I saw nothing, but yes it is official business." He sighed. "Yes or no." He nodded. "Good. Wyatt Halliwell's room." He listened another moment and then snorted. "What kind of question is that? Of course she is." He smiled, "See you soon," and hung up.

Lawrence looked at the curious eyes around him. The first ones to hit him were those of his daughter.

Ashlyn's eyes were wide. "Uncle Shelly coming?"

Lawrence laughed. "Yes, Ashlyn, Uncle Sheldon is coming."

* * *

The next chapter, Bianca's Latest Project, will be posted as soon as I notice a review. Hope you enjoyed this one.


	14. Bianca’s Latest Project

First a thank you to my reviewers:

cooker - I will take that to mean you either like the name or the character. Since Sheldon hasn't actually shown up I'm going to have to assume it's the name you like. Thanks for the review.

TaintedDarkInuShemeeko - Well, you will get caught up and for leaving the reviews that you did, you get to see your name in this chapter. I really appreciate it. I'm glad you liked the interaction between the two of them. I'm going to have fun with the interactions to come with those two.

I meant to up date a little sooner after I got cooker's review, but I've been busy finishing episode 13. I am so very excited, because episode 14 involves some characters that I have a lot of fun with. Though I did find some characters in episode 13 that surprised me. At any rate, enjoy this chapter.

* * *

Chapter Thirteen – Bianca's Latest Project

It was clear to everyone that Dr. Darrin was still not comfortable with Lawrence's connection to the chief of police, even if it was the _acting_ chief of police. He left the room after eliciting everyone's promise not to leave.

"First he says go, now he says stay," Lawrence said, slightly amused.

"Where exactly does he think we are going to go?" Bianca asked. "We came here for a reason."

Piper exhaled and eyed her, still weary. She decided to find something to focus on besides Bianca. "Mr. Holbrooke?"

"Lawrence."

"Right. What does your brother know about magic?"

He smiled. "Well, not as much as I do, but enough. He will make sure that nothing comes of the magical aspects of this."

"You mean like the fact that my son's attacker shimmered out of here?" Piper snapped annoyed.

Lawrence took no offence. He'd heard it before. "Like that."

"And how does he expect to do that?" Piper wanted to know.

"By avoiding the subject mostly," Bianca retorted. "But you should see Mason on the subject. It's downright hilarious."

"Brandon does all right though," Lawrence reminded her.

"Uncle Brandy!" Ashlyn exclaimed.

"I can't seem to get her to say my brothers' names right," Lawrence commented.

"Actually she means me," a voice said from the door.

Lawrence turned around startled and looked at the man standing there. "Brandon? What are on earth brings you here?"

"Well, I was visiting a friend and I get this phone call from Sheldon," Brandon Holbrooke informed his younger brother, "rather odd call it was, too." He looked around the room. "So tell me, little brother, why did you call Sheldon?"

Lawrence exhaled slowly. He waved a hand in Wyatt's direction. "Bianca's latest project."

Brandon's reaction was more apprehensive that those simple words seemed to deem. He turned worried eyes at his sister-in-law. "Not Nina was it?"

Bianca shook her head. "Vera."

He gulped. "Be careful."

"Don't I always?" She inquired.

"No," came the immediate response of both Holbrooke brothers.

"Vera doesn't play around," Brandon warned. "I still have the scars to prove it."

"I'm well aware of that," Bianca reminded him.

"What happened?" Wyatt asked from his bed.

Brandon snorted. "Let's just say that Bianca's introduction to our family came just in the nick of time."

"And that Brandon is a hothead," Lawrence added earning a playful slap from his brother.

"I had it well in hand."

"She had a knife to your neck," Lawrence returned. "Just be glad the bounty was lifted or else you would be in constant fear of your life."

"My life? What about yours? You were the one with the bounty on his head." Brandon turned to address them. "My little brother here doesn't have a job. He invests money and uses the returns to be a philanthropist. That annoyed some people on the side of evil. They decided they wanted him dead."

"And Bianca saved me," Lawrence finished, "and you. Thank you, but I doubt they need a recap on our lives. We aren't the ones in danger here."

Behind him the door swung open and Dr. Darrin entered leading a young, dark haired man in his thirties. He was wearing the uniform of the San Francisco Police Department. He smiled at Dr. Darrin. "Thank you for the help. My partner will be here shortly. We had trouble parking."

When Dr. Darrin had left the room Sheldon Holbrooke looked at his two older brothers. "All we need is Mason and we have a family reunion," he chuckled.

"You know fair well that Mason avoids anything magical," Brandon commented.

"Yes, yes," Sheldon agreed. "Can't believe you beat me here."

"I was in the hospital."

"Huh. Okay, well, I wasn't kidding about Tim being up soon and the guy has no sense of humor, so explaining away magic to him is near about impossible." Sheldon looked at Bianca. "Who did this? And what did they do anyway?"

"Vera," Bianca replied without hesitation. As Sheldon shuddered she added, "There is a bounty out for the guy on the bed and his brother." With a look at Wyatt she asked, "Younger?"

Wyatt didn't answer, so she just shrugged it off. "No matter. The bounty was posted yesterday, but I didn't find out until this afternoon. She tried to inject him with something shortly after I arrived in the room. It's on the ground."

"Gloved?" Sheldon asked as he looked down at the syringe.

"Naturally."

"I suppose that would have been too easy."

"And I suppose you think a jail would have held her."

"It would have if you bound her powers."

"And where would Nina have been then?"

"Safe," Brandon submitted.

"Who is Nina?" Piper asked, eyeing them suspiciously.

The three brothers looked at each other. It was Lawrence who answered first. "The reason our brother avoids magic."

"Vera's daughter," Brandon added.

"Mason's fiancée," Sheldon put in.

"She's someone who wants to change," Bianca informed her. "We grew up together, but our lives were very different. Honestly I cannot approve of Mason's relationship with her as things stand now, especially since she's still very much magical and he detests all things thus and because she's still in the 'business'. That alone is enough to make me weary of the relationship."

"Do I need to actually say anything?" Wyatt asked, watching the interchange with amusement.

Sheldon had the decency to look embarrassed. "Sorry, are you saying you actually want me to investigate a magical problem?"

"You're here," Wyatt reasoned. "I'm pretty sure it isn't for a reunion. And even if it is, your partner will be here shortly and you need a legitimate reason for being here. I am that reason. A woman came in here and tried to kill me. I've never seen her before. And honestly I don't know the reason why she wanted me dead." He gave the older two Holbrooke brothers a look. "And don't say because there was a bounty on my head. I only have your word on that, so I don't know that." He looked back at Sheldon. "I admit that chances are this will go down as an unsolved mystery, but are you denying you have to deal with it, or at least pretend to?"

Sheldon shook his head. "Sorry, I am used to Bianca having any living victims not wanting to even talk about it. Not that it's Bianca's fault, but an assassin that disappears in the blink of an eye . . . most people convince themselves that they are crazy."

"Blink of an eye, huh?" Wyatt held out his hand and blinked his own eyes. Blue orbs surrounded Sheldon's badge off his jacket and the badge reappeared in his hand. "I think I can handle the blink of an eye."

Sheldon gave a low whistle. "Boy do you know how to pick them, Bianca. Since I don't have to worry about that, why don't we dispense of formalities. Bianca, hand them over." He held out his hand as his sister-in-law glared at him. He smiled as she started reaching into her pockets pulling out knives of various sizes.

Wyatt's eyes grew wide at the sheer number of them.

Sheldon just waited. When she stopped, he bobbed his hand up and down. "Bianca, really. I want all of them. Tim will be here any minute."

Bianca gave him a look and walked over to where Ashlyn toddled around the room. She pulled out the chopsticks holding a small Pollyanna in a bun on the back of her daughter's head. She handed them to Sheldon.

Sheldon gaped at her. "Great. Teaching the toddler how to throw knives is really responsible parenting."

"Must we go through this every time we meet, Sheldon?"

He shook his head. "You know better than to enter a hospital with weapons."

"I know better than to enter without them if I want my innocents to live," Bianca shot back as a fair haired man enter the room.

"What did I miss?" Sheldon's partner asked.

Wyatt looked at his parents about ready to burst. Barely controlling himself he turned to look at the man. "Hello, I am Wyatt Halliwell. I believe you are here to interview me."

* * *

The next chapter is called "Closing Early" and Chris has to explain to his mom why he's closing down her restaurant early.


	15. Closing Early

First a thank you to my reviewer:

TaintedDarkInuShemeeko - I had a lot of fun with that chapter, especially with Laurence's list of who he and Bianca have on speed dial and Ashlyn's butterflies. Actually, by saying you get to see your name in this chapter, I just meant, that I had a comment up here for you, but sure I can put your name in a chapter. And I know exactly where to put it, too. The bad news is that it's in chapter twenty or so (numbering might change) or the episode after the episode following this one. Just made the alterations. The character had a name, but I wasn't attached to her name. She will most likely show up again. Of course since it's in episode thirteen and this story is episode eleven, it will be a while before I post it. Unless I get into some sort of posting war with a reviewer in which case in could be days, but I haven't had one of those in a long time. In a later chapter there is an actual flashback of how Bianca and Laurence met in this time line and in a chapter before that there is a flashback of how Bianca and Chris met in the other one. I think the one with Bianca and Laurence's story is called "The Joys of Scrying" and the one with Bianca and Chris' story is "When I Knew Them". I forget how much I talk about Mason and Nina in this story. I do think there is more in this story, but not a whole lot. However, there will be more about them. I have plans for those two. I think I plan to have a story about them in season three. Sheldon will be showing up in the season three opener as things are presently planned.

This next chapter has in the title two words Piper doesn't like, "Closing Early" and Chris has to tell her that he is doing exactly that because of what happened to him. Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter Fourteen – Closing Early

Chris looked down at the kitchen floor, somehow never more proud of a clean floor than he was in that moment. He turned to Emily with a smile. "Thank you."

"Glad to help," she replied. "Are you going to tell me where all that blood came from?"

"Me," Chris replied, "but you knew that. When someone wants you dead, they tend to try and draw blood."

Emily grimaced. "Good point. How's your side?"

"Better." _A lot better thanks to Mikelle._

"Well, that's good. Any idea how they got in? Or rather she. You did say she?"

Chris sighed and said nothing.

Thankfully the door to the kitchen swung open and Ty entered, keeping the silence from lasting long. "We're done in . . . whoa. This sure looks . . . different." He looked around at the clean floor. "Everything all right?"

"Peachy," Emily replied eyeing Chris with question in her eyes.

Chris nodded, more in acknowledgement than anything else.

"Since you had me tell them that we were closing early, well Chelsea wants to know if she should call her husband."

Chris nodded. "If he drove her here, then yes. How soon can you guys have this place cleaned and ready to leave?"

"Well, normally I'd say being understaffed was going to be a problem, but frankly we haven't been that busy tonight, so it should take all that long." Ty stood very still for a moment and then asked, "What did your mom say when you told her we were closing early?"

"She didn't say anything because I haven't told her yet."

"Shouldn't you get her approval, as owner, to close early?"

Chris dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out his cell. "It was close early or tell my mom that I couldn't stay here, so she had to leave my hospitalized brother to come finish out the shift." He held out the phone. "You want to tell her that, because I already thought of my alternatives. I already know Callie will say no and I already know that even if she said she'd come in she still wouldn't accept the responsibility of being in charge, even for a few hours. I already know Drinka would say yes and I already know that Drinka would want to avoid the kitchen like the plague. She barely meets the requirements for being able to cook that my mom put on this place. There is a reason she stays at the hostess stand. People love Drinka. They would not love her cooking." He shoves the phone into Ty's hand. "So make that call if you want, because I'm not telling my mom to come in."

"Clearly she needs to find more people for management," Emily mumbled under her breath.

Chris grinned. "Clearly. Last December she had I think three people quit for various reasons. Two of them were in management. She's not found people to replace them yet."

"She found you."

Chris snorted. "Not really. More like she cultivated me. Mom's been training me to help her in the kitchen since she learned that I didn't burn water, which by the way I think I cheated on."

Emily laughed. "How do you cheat on boiling water?"

"Who said my brother was boiling water when he burned it?" As Chris recalled Wyatt was playing with some sort of firepower that Chris hadn't seen since when he burned the water, the pan it was in, and half the stove. That, of course, was before magic had stopped, so Chris had been very young when it happened.

"If not boiling water, what was he doing?"

Chris shook his head. "I couldn't really say. I believe I was two at the time." He shook his head, unused to talking so much about himself, especially around the unmagical. "Ty, would you please go tell Chelsea that she can call her husband and tell everyone else to get cleaned up out there. Emily, would you help me get the dishes and everything in here cleaned."

Emily nodded. "No problem."

Ty frowned for a second and then held out Chris' phone. "You might want this back."

Chris chuckled a little. "Yeah, probably so."

"Call your mom. She needs to know," Ty exhaled slowly, "about what happened in here if nothing else. She's a mom. They don't like secrets."

Chris shook his head with a laugh and took the phone back. "Don't I know it." As Ty headed out of the room he opened his phone. Instead of dialing he simply said, "Wyatt."

Emily watched him with raised eyebrows and headed over to the sink to get started on those dishes.

Chris held the phone to his ear waiting, but to his surprise it was Piper who answered. "Chris?"

"Mom?"

Emily chuckled.

Chris glanced at her, having momentarily forgetting that she was in the room. "Yeah, it's me. How come you have Wy's phone?"

"Your brother is with the doctor having some tests done."

"Tests?" Chris asked worried.

"Apparently he's regained feeling in his legs." There was a hint of excitement and an edge of nervousness mixed together in her voice.

"He did? That's great, Mom. Now, what aren't you telling me."

"Nothing to worry about."

"Really, because when I tell you that it never works. Why would you think it would work with me?"

"Because it wouldn't matter. I can't talk about it."

Chris groaned. "Well, I will be there soon."

"You will not," Piper insisted. "You will stay right where you are, where it's safe."

"Cause it's so safe here," Chris retorted. "No, I already closed the restaurant, or had Ty do it I guess. We don't have too terribly much to do here and then I'm sending everyone home."

"Why would you close my restaurant down early?" Piper asked, slightly annoyed. "Do that and you will gain me a reputation for . . ."

"I was bleeding, Mom." Chris glanced at Emily and slipped into his mom's office. "I was bleeding really badly. I had to call a whitelighter to heal me."

"My word," Piper breathed into the phone. "Not you, too."

"Mom, she would have come back. And I couldn't risk someone ending up in the middle of that. Ty almost was. As was I had to use my powers to keep him out of the room. And I have a gauze pad on a no longer existent wound. And I cleaned up the blood by hand so Ty wouldn't grow suspicious when he wondered where it went so fast. I'm wearing a bloody shirt with a gaping hole in it where I was struck by one of your kitchen knives. I couldn't not close. Ty saw enough that I had to talk him out of calling the police or the ambulance."

Chris groaned. "This day's just a mess."

Piper looked across the room at Bianca who was talking to her husband. "You're telling me. Are you going to be okay, Chris?"

"Yeah, for now, but I had to close down for the night."

Piper sighed and nodded. "Yes."

"I will get over there as soon as I can. I want to stop by the manor first and check the book."

"We already know what you are looking for."

"Bianca," Chris realized. "That's what she meant about Wyatt and me being targeted. I'll come straight there then."

"Be careful."

"I will," Chris assured her before he closed his phone. He left the office and found Emily standing by the sink, drying a plate, her eyes on him. "I just talked to my mom."

"So I gathered. Somehow I don't think you meant to."

"No," Chris agreed with a laugh. "I called my brother's cell. Apparently he's getting some tests done."

"Not bad news I hope."

"No, good. He's getting better."

Emily grinned. "Well, that's wonderful."

Chris nodded.

"You were so worried earlier."

"It showed?"

She nodded. "Glad to hear that everything is getting better."

"So am I." _So am I._

* * *

In the next chapter Wyatt is told to get rid of most of his visitors because visiting hours are almost over. The chapter after that is one of the first times Chris really talks to Wyatt about the other time line, telling him stories of how he got from "hate at first sight" to being in love. I will post the next chapter once I have a review or more than one review if lots of people feel like talking, because I would love to hear what you think.


	16. Good Bye and Good Luck

First a thank you to my reviewer:

TaintedDarkInuShemeeko - I think that phrase works quite well here. He indeed is in a tough situation there with no good answers. Enjoy this next chapter.

You get to see a little banter between Wyatt and a co-worker (does it count as a co-worker if he works there and Wyatt only volunteers?) and a little fun with little Ashlyn and Wyatt's new found mobility. People begin to clear out and Chris arrives while Bianca is still there.

* * *

Chapter Fifteen – Good-Bye and Good Luck

Wyatt was rolled into the hospital room after over thirty minutes of tests. He was barefoot and grinning. "Hey, Mom, look. My toes move!"

Piper's eyes widened and she quickly moved to her sons side and to her delight, they did indeed move. "Did they find out what's happening?"

Wyatt shook his head. "Still looking for results." He cast a smile at the aide pushing his wheel chair. "Thanks a bunch. Remind me never to be hospitalized, again."

The young man grinned at him as he helped Wyatt get back onto the hospital bed. He just grinned more as Wyatt tried to avoid the help. "Can't say that I blame you, of course, with all that poking and prodding, and all the nurses flirting with you. If Celeste ever gave me that look she gave you. . ."

Wyatt groaned. "Would you tone it down, Hailer? My mom's here."

Rick Hailer gave Piper a little nod. "Always a pleasure, Mrs. Halliwell." Then, he winked at her.

"And my dad," Wyatt added with rolled eyes.

Rick saluted Leo. "Hello, Mr. Wyatt."

"Hello, Rick," Leo greeted, remembering having met the young man the past summer.

"I'll see you later, Wyatt," Rick said before leaving the room.

"And so will we," Sheldon announced.

"What?" his partner, Tim McGuire, looked at him startled. "But we aren't . . ."

"We've collected what we needed and talked to most of the witnesses."

"Most?"

"One of them had to leave," Sheldon informed him. "I have her name and we'll try and catch up with her, but I doubt there is much she can add." He sighed. "Unless she has a name or something to give us. Now, let's go." He looked at his brothers and shook his head. "Try to stay out of trouble, Big Brothers."

Ashlyn toddled over to Wyatt's bed. "Toes?"

Wyatt looked at her. "What?"

"Wiggle," she added.

He stared at her. "You want me to wiggle my toes?"

She nodded.

Tim glanced at Sheldon. "Okay, I'm leaving now."

"Good," Sheldon agreed. "We have papers to file."

"Bye, Uncle Shelly," Ashlyn called cheerfully as Sheldon and his partner headed out the door.

"Bye, Ashy girl," Sheldon returned as Tim made a break for it.

"Ashlyn," she protested.

He winked at her. "Uncle Sheldon."

"Uncle Shelly," she returned stubbornly.

"Give it up," Brandon suggested. "You will always be Uncle Shelly, just like I will always be Uncle Brandy and Mason will always be Uncle Macy. Almost makes a guy want to marry to make Lawrence into Uncle Laurie or something. Almost."

Sheldon shook his head amused. "Yeah, well one of these days." He smiled and headed out the door.

Out of sight out of mind seemed to apply as the moment the door closed Ashlyn turned her attention back to Wyatt. "Toes."

Wyatt moved obligingly so that his feet dangled from the bed. It was clear that his arms were doing all the work, but when Ashlyn giggled in delight it also became clear that the nerves in his legs were working, because his toes did indeed wiggle as they had when he entered the room.

"Well, this ought to make for an interesting explanation," Chris commented from where he stood in the doorway. He had changed into clean clothes and was looking at the small crowd gathered around his brother.

"I think that's my clue to get going," Brandon commented. He gave his younger brother a bear hug and swung his niece up into his arms. "Behave yourself, Sweetheart."

Ashlyn planted a kiss on his cheek. "Love Uncle Brandy."

"You'd better," he replied, not bothering to correct her. He never did. He kissed her back and set her down. Turning to his sister-in-law he suggested, "Be careful will you. I like seeing my brother this happy."

From the doorway, Chris stared at Bianca, once more unsettled by the sight of her. He walked over to where his parents were standing. As Brandon asked, having received some sort of reply from Bianca, Chris turned to his mom. "So what can you tell me?"

Piper glanced sideways at Bianca. "Well, for starters I'm not sure who is more uncomfortable in this room, me with Bianca or her with me."

"I'm going with me," Chris replied in a low voice, "but I'm dealing with it. I never really considered what might have happened to her these last few months, but this is awkward in the extreme and she has no idea."

Piper's response was interrupted by, "Toes!"

Chris gave his mom a look. "What on earth is going on?"

"Wyatt can move his toes," she replied. "Apparently little Ashlyn finds this funny."

"It's not just that," Leo added. "She finds it interesting. Most adults would not listen to that command from a toddler. She's enjoying the power."

"Enough of that," Lawrence said scooping up Ashlyn. "Mr. Halliwell needs to rest."

"Awe, Daddy," Ashlyn protested as she wiggled around to look at Wyatt. "Bye, Mr. Wyatt."

Leo looked up surprised.

Wyatt laughed. "I think she means me, Dad."

Ashlyn looked over at Leo. "You're Mr. Wyatt?"

Leo nodded. "I am."

"Okay," Ashlyn decided taking that in. "Bye, Mr. Wyatt."

"Good bye, Ashlyn," Leo returned.

Lawrence stopped next to Bianca. "Will you be home tonight, Sweetheart? He seems well guarded. They both do."

Bianca looked at Wyatt and his family. "I don't know. I'll call you later if I'm staying." She leaned over and placed a kiss on her daughter's forehead. "I love you both."

"I love you, too," Lawrence returned as he gave her a quick kiss. "Be careful."

Chris gulped, staring at them.

Wyatt raised an eyebrow at his brother. He kept noticing little things that made him wonder what exactly his brother knew of this family. He watched Lawrence carrying Ashlyn follow the path of his two brothers and head home. He turned to look at his brother and missed Dr. Darrin reentering the room.

He didn't miss Dr. Darrin's next words. "I just talked to officer Holbrooke and he doesn't think police protection is warranted, but he did suggest that someone stay the night here, just in case."

Bianca eyed him. "I see."

"And who are you?" Dr. Darrin asked, having not really taken much notice of her earlier.

"Mr. Halliwell's bodyguard if he agrees," she announced, "but so far no luck there."

Dr. Darrin looked around the room, stopping on Wyatt. "She can stay here to watch you if that is what you wish, but I don't want more than one person staying the night. I realize you are improving, but you are still in bad shape and you don't need people keeping you awake all night."

Wyatt looked around, trying to decide how to respond. Finally, he looked up at Dr. Darrin. "Why don't you give us a few minutes to talk? If only one person can stay, I know I am going to have a time of it talking it down to only that."

Dr. Darrin nodded. "You still have about half an hour until visiting hours are up. I'll be back then."

"Thank you." Wyatt didn't wait for him to leave, but instead turned to the four people left in the room. "I'll make this easy."

Piper raised her eyebrows as the door closed behind Dr. Darrin. "And how is it easy? You are still injured and she may well come back."

Wyatt slowly unbent his leg. "At this rate I may be back to my usual self by morning. As I told Chris this morning, I still have my powers. I can protect myself if I am expecting an attack. I want Chris to stay."

"Are you crazy?" Bianca asked, startled. "That's just asking for an attack."

Wyatt nodded. "Probably. Chris, you were attacked, right?"

Chris nodded. "She got a knife pretty deep in me."

"And you are fine now."

"I called Mikelle."

Wyatt nodded. "So she thinks you are injured."

"I doubt it," Bianca informed them. "Vera knows about witches and whitelighters. She will expect that Chris got a whitelighter to heal him. I assume Mikelle is your family whitelighter."

Wyatt and Chris looked at each other and then at their parents. Chris was trying hard not to laugh.

Piper sighed. "My husband was our family's whitelighter. The only other whitelighter this family has ever had was . . . well, he wasn't our whitelighter for his ability to heal us."

Bianca looked at her curious. "Interesting. I've never heard of a whitelighter who couldn't heal, but I suppose that is true that they aren't just there to heal their charges. Being a Phoenix I do not have one. They rather prefer to ignore my kind, even if there is the rare occasion when we aren't evil." She nods suddenly. "Yes, I suppose this can work, but I want you to have my number so you can call me if something goes wrong. I don't like leaving one of her targets unguarded, but I suppose you do seem to be a rather unusual case."

"Would someone give her my cell phone so she can put her phone number in there?"

Chris backed off and picked the phone off the table where it had been lain after its last use. He handed it to Wyatt.

Wyatt raised his eyebrows and shrugged. He held it out to Bianca.

Bianca took it and punched something into it. As her pocket began to ring, she hung it up and handed it back to Wyatt. "That should suffice for now. Call me if she returns. And be careful."

"I'm always careful," Wyatt protested.

Bianca looked at the family in front of her and shook her head smiling. "Somehow I doubt that." Looking at Piper she said, "I don't know what caused you to attack my mother, but I'm sure your son is important to you, just as my daughter is important to me and I am important to my mother. Don't let him do anything stupid. I hate for this to work and for his life to be spared and then him to get himself killed a few weeks, a month down the line."

"Leave my son to me, both of them."

"Mom!" Chris protested.

"I don't understand," Bianca commented looking at them oddly.

"Don't try," Chris suggested. "We'll call if we see her."

She nodded and headed out the door.

Chris turned to his parents. "She's not the same person, Mom. Intellectually I know that."

"Bianca tried to kill you," Piper reminded him.

He shook his head. "No. No, she didn't. She was misguided, but she was trying to save me. She thought she knew what she was doing. She was wrong, but she didn't try to kill me and when she realized it, she tried to help me get back. That woman who just walked out that door wasn't her. She just looks like her. I'm having a hard enough time keeping that in mind on my own without you making it that much harder. And I'm not that person either, but his memories are mixed up with mine, so those emotions are there. Please, Mom."

* * *

The next chapter is a major flashback chapter with multiple flashbacks of the other time line. For once Chris is being open with Wyatt about what happened there. He still keeping things, but he's got a lot to say about how he met Bianca. If anyone wants to know more about Wyatt's missing ex, she's in there too, though since it's her from the other time line she's not completely the same. The upcoming chapter is called "When I Knew Them" and if you want to read it sooner rather than later, review and let me know what you think of this one.


	17. When I Knew Them

First a thank you to my reviewer:

TaintedDarkInuShemeeko - Glad to hear that I'm getting about the right age with Ashlyn. I have a niece of my own, but she's younger, not yet nine months (five more days for that). I bet you enjoy having a niece. I hope that you do enjoy how this story plays out.

Sometimes it can be a lot of fun to make flashbacks. This chapter is a short story in itself as Chris tells Wyatt the story of how he met Bianca in the other time line.

* * *

Chapter Sixteen - When I Knew Them

It had been almost an hour since Piper and Leo had said good bye. Chris hadn't said much since Piper had agreed to try and not bring up Bianca's past. He'd said good-bye to his parents, but that was about it. Now, he was sitting in a chair next to the window looking out.

"You know when I asked you to stay, I kind of figured I would have more of a conversation going on than this," Wyatt commented. "Care to explain what exactly is going on?"

Chris turned around and looked at him. He sighed. "I'm sure you have guessed by now that I knew Bianca in the other time line."

Wyatt nodded. "It was rather evident. So what happened?"

"I loved her," Chris said, looking anywhere but at his brother.

Wyatt blinked in surprise. That wasn't at all what he expected. "Okay, so what happened? How did you even know someone like her? Did she help you fight another Phoenix or something?"

"Not exactly," Chris scoffed.

"Then what?"

Chris stood and started pacing the room. After several long minutes he looked over at his brother. "I was sixteen when I first met Bianca and it was pretty much hate at first sight."

* * *

_Chris shut the door behind him. He was done with school and all things that had to do with it. It was bad enough that he'd lost his mother to death, but now he had to deal with his older brother completely going crazy. This was not worth it._

"_Hey, Halliwell," a boy yelled down the hall. "I heard what your brother did. Heard he's been expelled."_

_Chris turned and glared at him. "If you heard what my brother did, then you heard he deserved it." He advanced toward the boy, a look of malice growing on his face. "You know I don't much care to stay in school either. And frankly I don't care if I get expelled either."_

_The other boy gulped and backed up._

_"My mom is dead. I haven't seen my dad much since she died, two years ago. And now my brother's insane!" He started cracking his knuckles and the boy started running. Chris snorted and started toward the exit. "I said my brother was insane, not me."_

* * *

_It took about half an hour to walk to a place down town where he knew he could find people looking for a fight. And they wouldn't expect a gangly, too thin teen to put up much of a fight. Since Wyatt had already gotten magic good and exposed, no point in not using some, right. It wasn't as if he planned to get anyone killed and they would deserve the fight or they would be attacking a seemingly unarmed sixteen-year-old._

_It didn't take long before Chris found himself under attack, but not quite in the way he had imagined. A knife was to his throat before he even knew another person was close by. "Give your money and I might let you live."_

_Chris snorted. "I don't keep money on me. What kind of old movies have you been watching?" He orbed the knife into hand and spun around. "I've never used a knife before and I'm not in a good mood." He threw the knife as far down the alley as he could. "You aren't going to be getting any money out of me, alive or dead, so forget about it. The way I see it, you have two choices."_

_The would-be-mugger looked at Chris as if he was crazy. He appeared to be debating his chances of taking Chris without his knife. Apparently deciding his chances were still good, or maybe that he just wanted to fight, he jab Chris in the gut._

_Chris went down hard. Even though it pained him to get up he pushed himself to his feet and heaved in a breath of air. A maniacal grin grew on Chris face as he faced the other boy. His fist shot out._

_The other boy caught it and slammed his own fist at Chris._

_Chris leaned out of the way and pulled the boy down by his shirt collar. They rolled around on the ground throwing punches at each other and trying to dodge the other's fists. It wasn't the most effective way to fight, but Chris didn't want effective. He wanted to fight. When the other boy pulled away, Chris let him._

_The other boy stood and brushed himself off. He thingyed his head and frowned at Chris. "Why didn't you run?"_

_Chris snorted and shrugged. "Did that look like I needed to run? And why should I, anyway? I came out fine, didn't I?"_

_"But you didn't know you would," the other boy commented._

_"Maybe not," Chris admitted, "but I knew I'd come out alive, so I really didn't care much."_

_The other boy backed away a step. "You didn't know I wouldn't have killed you. You couldn't have known."_

_Chris looked at him surprised. "You're right, I didn't know that."_

_The other boy's eyes widened. "Oh. Oh!" He groaned. "I didn't mean that. Of course I would have . . ."_

_"Forget it," Chris ordered him. "I'm not going to believe you at this point."_

_The boy moaned. "If I get a reputation for letting people go without getting their money . . . ooooh!"_

_"Calm down," Chris looked at the other boy uncomfortably. "No one is going to mention this meeting."_

_"So you say," the other boy argued, "but they have ways of learning these things and pretty soon it will be everywhere."_

_About halfway through, Chris quit paying any attention to what the other boy was saying. He saw an athemé sailing toward the air toward them and he just reacted. He grabbed the boy and pulled him down, hard to the ground. The athemé sailed over their heads and hit a box behind them._

_The boy looked up and saw the athemé sticking into the box. He moaned. "They all ready know."_

_"Ridiculous," Chris argued as he looked beyond the boy into the alleyway. A young woman looked down the alley at him, malice in her eyes. She was dressed in black leather and had another athemé ready to through. Chris eyed her for only a moment before he made a decision. "Do you believe in magic?" he asked the boy._

_"No," came the confused reply._

_"You're about to," Chris informed him as he pulled out the athemé and orbed them both out of there._

* * *

_When they reappeared the other boy stared around the surroundings. Then he stared at Chris. "Where are we? Who are you?"_

_"Where we are is in the sitting room of my family's home," Chris informed him as he plopped onto the couch. "No one lives here anymore, though my aunt sometimes uses it for entertaining."_

_The other boy didn't seem very reassured as he glared at Chris._

_"Fine," Chris relented. "I'm Chris. Look, I'm not sure which of us that . . . knife was meant for, but I wasn't about to just leave you alone there to find out."_

_There was silence as the other boy just stared at him. "And you got us here, how?"_

_"Like I said. Magic."_

_More silence followed and then the boy started laughing. "You had me going there for a minute. Magic, indeed."_

_Chris shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Right. Believe what you like, I guess."_

_"I'm Brian," the boy informed him. "I have no idea how we got here, but I saw that knife. I imagine you probably saved my life, so thank you. I'll be leaving now."_

_Chris waved a hand in the direction of the front door. "The exit's that way, but be warned, I don't really don't know who was the target there, so I'd advise you to be careful."_

_Brian Heitzman looked at him, trying to see something that might or might not have been there. After what seemed like several minutes of silence Brian sighed. "I'm on the death list if this gets out anyway, so how do we find out who that knife was meant for?"_

_"We find the assassin," Chris informed him. "Or if you prefer, I find the assassin."_

_Brian mentally flashed over the events of the last several minutes and made a decision of his own. "I'm coming with you." _

* * *

"I don't get it," Wyatt commented. "That had nothing to do with Bianca Holbrooke."

"No?" Chris shrugged. "It was how I was first introduced to her. She tried to kill someone and I saved him. At that point in time my exposure to her was limited. I got to know more about Brian than I did her, but it's amazing what time can do."

"I don't think time heals someone trying to kill you," Wyatt replied wryly.

"It wasn't just time," Chris admitted as he paced the room. "I got her off his trail by getting the bounty removed, but it wasn't until years later that any of us got to know her better." He stopped and looked at his older brother. "I'm not sure if I should tell you more."

Wyatt scowled at him. "And why is that?"

"Because the next person to have contact with Bianca was Amber," Chris informed him.

Wyatt heaved in a breath. "Just tell me. I have to start accepting that she's gone one of these days, but I chose not to make that day today."

Chris nodded.

"So how did you get from protecting someone she was trying to kill to being in love with her?"

"It's not as if you jump directly from one to another you know," Chris retorted.

Wyatt just smiled and waited.

* * *

_Time had not been good to what was left of the Halliwell family. Wyatt had completely disassociated himself from his aunt and his brother barely having anything to do with his grandfather. Only Leo was deemed worthy of his attention and sometimes it seemed that this was only to prove he had more importance to his father than Chris did. As tactics went it was rather effective. Chris had seen Wyatt more recently than he had Leo and even that had been more than six months since. _

_Victor was there for both his youngest daughter and his younger grandson, but that was always enough for an eighteen-year-old more than ready prove himself. Chris had said good bye to his grandfather and ran across town to the house of his friend Genevieve Lawson. It was funny how easily he'd gotten used to not using magic over the past sixteen months since his brother had learned how to monitor magical usage. It had been almost fourteen months since he had orbed anywhere, longer still since he'd used his other powers. He still could use potions, of course, but spells he was careful about, since they too could be monitored if one looked carefully at just the right moment. The difference was they could only be tracked if you caught them in progress._

_He wrapped on the door and waited. It opened without a word and Miles Lawson, Gen's brother appeared at the door. "You again," Miles said with a shake of his head. "Gen's in the basement."_

_"Right. Thanks."_

_"Uh huh, just don't bother me. You guys got noisy last time you met."_

_"Who's here?"_

_"The gypsy and the street kid."_

_Chris chuckled, wondering what Brian would think of the description. Kali would be proud of being called a gypsy. She always was. That left Amber, because really, who else was there?_

_As if thinking of her conjured her up a hand rested on his shoulder and Chris turned around. "Hi, Amber."_

_Dark waves of hair were pulled back into a ponytail, something unusual for her and dark smudges of dirt rested on her cheeks. "Hi, Chris. When we get down there, we need to talk." She smiled up at Miles. "Hi, Miles."_

_Miles looked at her suspiciously and moved out of the way. "Just be quiet down there. I have work to do."_

_Amber chuckled and walked into the house followed by Chris. When they got downstairs Kali Nicolae was dancing circles around Brian with a piece of paper in her hand._

_"Would you stop that?" Brian begged._

_It was then that Kali spotted Chris and Amber. She grinned and stopped moving other than to wave at them._

_"Hey, Chris. Welcome."_

_"What about me?" Amber teased._

_"Long time, no see," Kali returned with a grin._

_"I've been busy," Amber admitted, "but I have something to share. Where's Gen?"_

_"Gen is right behind you," Genevieve announced as she walked down the stairs and between Chris and Amber with a tray of snacks. "So what's this you have to share? Something useful?"_

_"Someone who needs our help," Amber replied. "Apparently she ran into Chris a few years ago and he impressed her as . . . how did she put it . . . undauntable."_

_"Hardly," Chris retorted as he got off of the stairs and turned to look at her._

_"Well, she seemed to think so. Seems when you first met Brian you faced down a major gang network to get him off their hit list."_

_Brian gulped at that, remembering his first few encounters with Chris. "I'd have to say that I agree with her. Who is she?"_

_"I'll get to that," Amber said with a shrug. "She said she ran into someone who wanted her to do things even she won't agree to. And from what I understand she'll do some rather questionable things and some things that aren't even questionable, just wrong."_

_"We're helping the bad guys, now?"Brian grimaced._

_"Not a chance, Amber," Genevieve protested. "We are trying to help stop evil, not aid it."_

_"And if evil can be turned to aid us, turned to good?" Amber asked softly._

_Genevieve shook her head. "Look I know how you feel about that?"_

_"Do you?" Amber asked, softly. "Do you really?"_

_"Yes. I do, Amber. I know what it's like to love someone who is absolutely wrong for you."_

_"This isn't about someone who's wrong for me, because he's not. And I can't believe he's beyond redemption."_

_Genevieve just shook her head. "And that is where we will never agree."_

_Chris frowned as he looked at the two girls confused. "What on earth are you talking about?"_

_"Amber dated a warlock," Gen informed him._

_"He's not a warlock," Amber protested._

_"He might as well be. Once a witch has killed, that's it."_

_"Witches kill all the time."_

_"Knock it off!" Chris ordered. "Is this going to cause problems for us later on, Amber?"_

_"No."_

_"Probably," Gen countered._

_Chris groaned. "Fine, we will discuss it, but later. Tell us about this evil being that wants our help, Amber."_

_"She's a witch."_

_"Impossible," Gen argued. "Witches are good."_

_"It's not impossible and she is a witch," Amber informed her. "She's a special kind of witch. They are called Phoenix, an elite family of witches from the early days of America. Probably they have been around longer, but they aren't noted before then. Like many, witches and 'suspicious' human alike, they were burned, but they rose from the ashes like the mythical bird, hence the name. They have no love for normal humans or really normal witches either, but they are not so far gone that some of them cannot be returned to good, and I think she might be saved from that life." _

* * *

"As you can imagine neither Brian not I were very happy when we learned Amber's unlikely innocent was the assassin that had tried to kill him two years previous," Chris said with a chuckle. He was now sitting on the chair next to the bed.

Wyatt sat on the edge of the bed. He was swinging his legs back and forth, happy for even that movement. "I imagine not. That's still a long way from being in love with her."

"Very true," Chris agreed. "We met with her and Brian ranted at Amber, telling her she was insane to try and help this monster. He hadn't actually seen her before, but he figured it out from the conversation between her and myself."

* * *

_Chris stared ahead in shock. "That's her?"_

_Amber nodded. "Yes, that's her."_

_"You have any idea what she did?"_

_Amber nodded. "Actually she told me all about that, said she figured she should put all the cards on the table."_

_"What did she do?" Kali asked coming up behind them._

_"You don't want to know," Chris forestalled anything Amber might have said._

_"She tried to kill me," Brian answered instead. "Right? That's what you don't want said. That's the assassin they hired."_

_Chris didn't say anything and Kali frowned. She looked at the other three, Gen having stayed behind. "Amber, is that it?"_

_"She won't answer," Brian snarled when no answer was forthcoming. "She wants us to help that monster, don't you, Amber. Are you insane?!"_

_Amber shook her head. "Says the guy who held Chris at knife point."_

_"Yeah, real good, deflect this to me over the guy who came looking for a fight. I wouldn't have hurt him and you know it."_

_"Yes, I do," Amber replied. "And that's because I now know you. It's because I heard that story almost a year after I met you. The problem here is that all of us have heard of the other person in that story. We've heard of her, but not one of us knows her. Do you know she would have killed you?"_

_"She tried," Brian argued._

_"And failed. Her aim is good. I saw her practicing."_

_"She didn't count on Chris."_

_"She should have walked away when she saw Chris," Amber informed him. "Phoenix don't care for witnesses. They generally don't kill beyond their bounty, no gain in that. Had she killed you, she would have needed to kill him, too, and she knew that before she took aim. It's curious, don't you think."_

_"Not really. She's a monster."_

_"Then leave, because I intend to help her."_

_"Why does she need our help anyway?"_

_"Because He sees us as a threat, and has ordered the deaths of all of the young," an angry voice informed them._

_They all looked up to see Bianca Donchi standing before them. "I'm not a mother myself, but I know others who have small children. I'm not going to watch those little ones be slaughtered because someone sees them as a threat. What came before now is irrelevant. I was only doing my job. It's what I know. It's how I live. You may not like it . . ."_

_"You bet your life I don't like it," Brian returned. "You tried to kill me."_

_"That is over," Bianca replied with a shrug. "There is no bounty on your life." She looked over the group. "Or either of these girls. As for him," she nodded at Chris, "anyone facing off against him does so at penalty of their own life, so only an idiot would try it."_

_Chris looked at her surprised. "You mean to tell me my brother ordered the deaths of countless Phoenix children, but I'm protected?"_

_"Precisely," she replied with an irrelevant shrug. "Who'd have thought a monster would have a heart." The last comment was directed at Brian. _

* * *

"Monster, huh?" Wyatt teased, giving his brother a shove.

"You don't think so?" Chris returned. "You wanted to hear this."

Wyatt nodded. "It's not me. And this isn't about me, anyway. It's about you. It's about understanding why you responded to that woman's presence the way you did."

Chris sighed. "Yeah, well. She has no idea what kind of history I have with her, so this doesn't go beyond the two of us."

"I am curious about these other people," Wyatt commented, looking closely at Chris. "Amber and Kali I know of course, but who are Brian and the Lawson siblings?"

"Brian is someone I worked with at Centennial. He started in January, so while I have years of experience around him, he's a complete stranger, really. I didn't even recognize him until my last day there and it was what he said, not how he looked that caught my attention." Chris chuckled. "I guess his relationship with his girlfriend was not to be, because he lost her to her ex in both time lines."

"And the other two?"

"Well, I haven't met Miles Lawson in this time line, and I only met Gen briefly, so I really don't know." Chris sighed and stood, starting pacing again. "Honestly for their sake, I hope they never see me, again. In the other time line it got both Brian and Gen killed for being my friends. And Miles was dead before that, though I'm not really sure why he was killed."

"So what happened from there?"

"I went to the source, and that conversation isn't worth repeating," Chris scoffed.

"You don't want to tell me what I said?"

"Not particularly," Chris agreed with a grimace. "It grew into a fight, but your refusal to kill me, at least then, was something I was able to exploit. It's not like I was willing or able to kill you either, but what you saw as weakness I saw as strength. I was there to save lives and you planned to end them."

"And did I?"

"Yes."

Wyatt's eyes closed and he was very quiet. When he finally opened them he looked his little brother in the eye, "I'm sorry."

"It turned all of the Phoenix against you, not that you cared much." Chris sighed. "We saved some of them. There was this one little girl, about Hope's age. She didn't make it herself, but she protected her two younger siblings and five other Phoenix children. The eight children had been with a babysitter, a Phoenix, and the baby-sitter was killed, but seven of those children survived. If I only could have healed, I could have saved her life, but she was too far gone for anything else to have saved her." Chris smiled a little. "I imagine she's probably alive and well in this time line. She'd be around fourteen or fifteen now if she is."

"Perhaps you can look her up sometime," Wyatt suggested.

"Perhaps I can," Chris agreed.

"So I still don't see how this got to you two being in love."

Chris smiled slightly. "Well, like I said, after what happened the Phoenix all turned against you. Some openly, some not as openly. Bianca decided her best chance was to pretend to side with you, but work with me and my friends. We honestly didn't have much of a plan. Well, other than Amber. She had lots of plans. We had no idea how much was going on in her head. Honestly, I have no idea how I got surrounded with so many people who openly associated with you, the evil dictator of the world as it were."

Wyatt shook his head, trying not to laugh. "Hard to imagine, but what do you mean who openly associated with me. Clearly you didn't if it had been over six months prior to that since you had seen me."

"Well, we have Amber, who was absolutely convinced you could be saved, more than any of us, I think. And she loved you, hard to do when referring to someone like you were then. And then there's Kali. Think about that . . . Kali. She wasn't all that much different from what you know."

Wyatt smiled at that. "Yes, Kali would cling to even remembrances of good and insist that I could become that once more."

"You don't know the others, not Brian, Gen, or anyone who joined us after that, but they didn't know you either. They saw you as evil first and my brother second. Bianca did too, but like I said, she chose to pretend to aid you and so her association with you was well known, while her's with me was not. For a long time she didn't meet with any of the others, things were still difficult between her and Brian for the longest time anyway. She met with me and we became friends.

* * *

_"I don't have a whole lot of time, so don't interrupt," Bianca announced as she entered the garden._

_Chris looked up, amused. "Hello to you to."_

_"Your brother doesn't know I'm gone, Chris, so let me talk."_

_"Talk then," Chris replied, trying to look attentive, but that was difficult when one was sporting two days growth on one's chin and one hadn't slept in almost forty-eight hours._

_"There is an attack planned on a factory in Bangkok. I know you don't exactly speak the language, but the rumor is that there is a future whitelighter working there and if there is one thing your brother wants to make sure doesn't happen is the return of the elders. For some reason he sees them as a really huge threat. I'm not sure how one future whitelighter translates to the return of the elders, but he intends to see this man dead. I also don't understand how killing someone who when they die will become a whitelighter will help this plan, but no one questions his orders."_

_When Bianca took in a deep breath, Chris took that as assent to talk. "Bangkok isn't exactly small. Can you be any more specific?"_

_She shook her head. "'Fraid not. What I can tell you is he isn't a native." She glanced down at her watch. "I have to get going. Find him and protect him."_

_Chris nodded. "We'll do our best. Thanks."_

* * *

"And then she left," Chris informed him, "as she always did. Not a whole lot of talking you can do under the circumstances, but with time comes knowledge if you let it and neither of us was really too worried about letting the other learn anything."

"Did you save the future whitelighter?"

Chris smiled at that. "Actually we did. We saved all of them. It was a really good feeling."

Wyatt smiled back. "I'm glad to hear it. So what happened next?"

"You realized that Bianca might be useful in getting me back, which for some reason, you wanted."

"You're my little brother. Of course I wanted it."

"And yet, by then we were polar opposites."

"It wouldn't matter," Wyatt informed him. "You were still my brother. I may not be the same person I was in that time line, but I can't imagine that would change even if I was a cold blooded killer."

"Maybe," Chris said hesitantly, uncertain.

Wyatt didn't press it. "So you said, I thought Bianca might be useful. How's that?"

"You thought you got her to spy on me," Chris told him. "That allowed her to spend more time with us. I fell in love and so did she. Shortly before I went to the past I asked her to marry me and she accepted."

"And now she's married to someone else," Wyatt commented watching Chris face.

Chris nodded. "And now she is. And he doesn't know me. But you're right. She's not the same person. It's like comparing Alanna and Jani. They may look alike, but they certainly aren't the same person."

Wyatt nodded. "Yeah, I guess that's a pretty good comparison."

"Thanks."

Wyatt looked at him surprised. "For what?"

"Listening." Chris sblack personed slightly. "I guess I needed that. I still am not prepared to tell you everything, but it felt good to talk about her, about what happened. And Mom sure wouldn't have been good ears for that. Dad maybe, but not Mom."

"Why's that?"

Chris shook his head. "That story is for another day, when I'm ready." He glanced at the clock in the wall. "You know what, it's getting late, so why don't we try and get some sleep."

Wyatt nodded. "Sounds good to me." He used his arms and what mobility he had gained in his legs to push himself up onto the bed and under the covers. "Good night, Chris."

* * *

That has to be one of the longest chapters I have ever written. I hope you enjoyed the flashbacks. The next chapter is called "Vera's Next Move". Vera doesn't like Bianca interfering with her bounty, not this one. It's too costly a bounty to loose. What do you think she's going to attempt?


	18. Vera's Next Move

First a thank you to my reviewer:

TaintedDarkInuShemeeko - You are on the right track, but Vera doesn't go there quite yet. She will though.

Vera's not too happy about failing so far and she decides to take it out on Bianca.

* * *

Chapter Seventeen – Vera's Next Move

"Story, Mommy," Ashlyn requested looking up sweetly.

Bianca smiled and shook her head. "Sorry, sweetheart, but three's the limit for tonight. You want more and you get ready faster."

"Want a story," Ashlyn replied again stubbornly.

Bianca clucked her tongue and picked her up. "Not tonight. Bed time." She carried her toward the kitchen and stuck her head in. "Really, Lawrence. Eating this late isn't good for you."

"We didn't have much of a chance to eat at The Manor," Lawrence reminded her, "since we left so soon after our food arrived. I was just putting it away, though, so quit worrying. I will starve, but my metabolism or whatever is the problem with eating late won't suffer."

Bianca snorted. "Right. Come with me to tuck her in?"

Lawrence closed the refrigerator. "Of course."

As her daddy came out of the kitchen, Ashlyn leaned out of her mommy's arms and grabbed at him. "Daddy! Story!"

Lawrence laughed. "I believe you already got your stories for the night."

Ashlyn blew out a breath glared at him. "Story."

Lawrence took her from Bianca and swung her around. "Nope. Off to bed." He carried her off to her bedroom, Bianca behind him. He put Ashlyn onto her bed and tucked her in.

Ashlyn reached up her hand and grabbed his shirt before he could unbend. "Story?"

Lawrence turned to look at his wife who just shook her head, smiling. "Is she this persistent when I'm not home?"

Bianca shook her head. "Not usually. She seems to think Daddy will give in."

"Story?" Ashlyn repeated, looking up hopefully.

"Sorry, sweetie. Bed time." Lawrence leaned down and gave his daughter a kiss.

"Night, Daddy," Ashlyn replied, giving up. "Kiss, Mommy?"

Bianca laughed as she learned down and gave her daughter a kiss. "I love you, Ashlyn."

"Love, Mommy," Ashlyn returned and added, "Love, Daddy."

"Yes, I do," Lawrence replied. "I love my Ashlyn."

After bidding their daughter goodnight, Lawrence and Bianca headed to their own bedroom. Bianca dug into her purse and pulled out her cell phone. Lawrence looked at her curiously.

"I agreed to leave only if they call if something goes wrong," she explained. "No use in that if I don't have my phone out."

Lawrence nodded, having dealt with many different types of people through his wife and spent many nights sleepless wondering if she was coming home. Having seen for himself what had happened when Vera attacked he had a feeling these brothers could handle her, but if it made his wife feel better to keep the line open he had no objections.

* * *

A little over an hour later a scream filled the ears of Lawrence and Bianca, causing both to bolt upright. "Ashlyn!" Bianca exclaimed as she looked at her husband in horror.

Paying no attention to what Lawrence was doing, Bianca climbed out of bed and blinked her eyes. When she reopened them she was in Ashlyn's room staring across it to where Vera stood holding her screaming, kicking daughter captive.

Vera offered Bianca a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Well, Bianca. It seems we are at an impasse."

"Easily fixed," Bianca returned. "Our daughters are not part of this."

"That's hardly true considering my daughter's connection to your husband's family."

"I'm not responsible for that."

"It matters not," Vera returned. "I will give you back your daughter, unharmed. Just stay out of my way. When those witches are dead Ashlyn is free. I see you anywhere near them again and Ashlyn is dead. Am I understood?"

Bianca gulped. "Leave her out of this."

Vera sneered. "Hardly." And then she blinked, taking Ashlyn with her to places unknown.

Lawrence ran into the room, seconds later. His eyes darted around the room before he looked at his wife. He gathered her into his arms without a word and let her cry.

After several minutes she finally was able to form words. "All I can think is I should have allowed my mom to get that ability for her."

Lawrence stared at her confused. "I don't understand."

"Did you know that the ability to blink is actually a rare ability?"

Lawrence frowned. "But it seems so common."

She nodded. "That's because warlocks have found a way to pass it on to their offspring even when they didn't come by it naturally. Deep magic, powerful spells. Occasionally a warlock will be born with it naturally, but that is even more rare than a witch being born with it, because it's associated with good magic." A sound that was a mixture between a laugh and a sob escaped her lips. "Funny really since everyone who thinks of it associates it with warlocks."

"I still don't understand," Lawrence informed her. "What has this to do with Ashlyn? She can't blink like you can."

"That's because my ability isn't natural and I refused to allow my mother to cast the spell that would have passed it on to Ashlyn." She sucked in a breath. "And I was right to, but right now I still wish I hadn't refused her."

"But why did you refuse if it is only a spell."

She looked at him. "Because it costs a life. To steal a power, a life must almost always be lost. Occasionally there are ways around that, but not often and warlocks don't care about that. And while Phoenix are a breed apart, they are still, when it comes down to it, only witches or warlocks." She heaved in a heavy in another breath. "But no more of that. We have to do something to stop her. We cannot just let her keep Ashlyn."

"So it _was_ Vera?"

Bianca nodded. "Yes."

"Did she say what she wanted?"

"For me to step aside and let her kill the Halliwell brothers and I cannot. I can't, Lawrence."

He nodded, his eyes sad. "I know. So what do we do now?"

"We call them. We tell them what happened and we go from there."  


* * *

If anyone wants to know why I have Phoenix blinking, a detailed answer can be found in this chapter on my site. I'd give a link, but it wouldn't stay, so go to my site and find the section with the episodes. From their find this episode and this chapter. I believe it's the fifth reply. If you don't want to try finding it there, but still want the answer fill free to PM me here or ask in your review. It's really long or I would post it here. It includes quotes from the show on the topic of blinking. I will say that from what I could see, Bianca did shimmer in Chris-Crossed, but the show also indicated that Phoenix where witches without any indication that they might also be demonic, so I took that to mean they were witches, evil witches, or warlocks. Bianca and Ashlyn are witches. Vera and her daughter, Nina, are evil witches.

The next chapter is called "The Joys of Scrying". While Chris is trying to find a solution to the news he and Wyatt recieve he runs into his father who has some news for him.


	19. The Joys of Scrying

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Mandraco - Thank you. I'm so glad that you have enjoyed this and the previous ten episodes. It's always nice to hear that. I am trying to get this up as I get reviews. I'm a little slow on this update, because I've been stressed out about something else. On the other hand, I did get some work done on an upcoming episode. Also thank you for the compliment on my name. Your own name is similiar to something my brother might have come up with and on a lesser scale what one of my sisters might use. I hope this next chapter will wet your apitite for more and maybe answer a couple of questions.

There is an event in this chapter that has been a long time in coming. It has to do with something Leo says. In addition you get the story of how Bianca and Lawrence (and Brandon) met. It's been hinted at, but the actual story is in this chapter. Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter Eighteen – The Joys of Scrying

Chris closed his phone and turned to look solemnly at his brother. "The bounty on us must be huge," he commented as he sat down on the edge of the bed. "Vera is taking steps to keep Bianca out of this battle."

Wyatt frowned at him. "I take that to mean Bianca was on the other line."

Chris nodded. "Vera kidnapped her daughter."

Wyatt's frown grew. "What are we going to do? Did she say?"

"I got the idea that she's not sure we should do anything, but she's also not willing to let Vera win and she believes us capable."

Wyatt raised an eyebrow. "And will she let us rescue her daughter."

"She'll let us try," Chris confirmed. "She's not that confident in us."

"Do we know where Vera might have her?"

Chris shook his head.

Wyatt sighed. "So we need to find that out. Scrying?"

"Makes sense," Chris agreed. "But how? Ashlyn's not a demon and neither is Vera."

"But they are both witches, aren't they?" Wyatt returned. "Or Ashlyn is and Vera's a warlock. At least that's how I understood the explanations I heard."

Chris nodded slowly. "I suppose that's true."

"So we can scry for them," Wyatt argued. "I am sure we can scry for witches if we something of theirs. To be honest I'm not sure it even matters what someone is so long as you have something of theirs to scry with."

Chris looked at him, unsure. "I suppose, maybe. But I'm pretty sure you're right about witches though." He sighed. "Which means we need something of Ashlyn's, because it doesn't matter where Vera is and I don't know if we could get something of her's anyway."

"So we need to go to the Holbrookes."

Chris frowned at his older brother. He looked at various machines monitoring him. "No, I suspect we don't need to do anything. You leave here and the doctors will come."

Wyatt scowled. "I'm fairly certain I could get around normally. My legs seem to be working right again."

Chris shook his head. "No can do."

"Are you going to be okay with going to her house?"

Chris scowled at him. "I'll be fine. I don't have much choice. That little girl needs our help." Before Wyatt could argue anymore Chris orbed out.

* * *

Chris reappeared in the front room of the Holbrooke's house. Lawrence looked at him startled and then watched in utter fascination.

Chris raised an eyebrow at him. "You'd think he'd never seen a whitelighter orbing before."

Bianca looked at her husband thoughtfully. "You know, I don't think he has."

"Really?" Chris looked at them surprised. "Seriously?"

Bianca smiled weakly. "Well, Phoenixes don't have whitelighters, so it's not something that comes up much."

"Oh."

"But why are you here?" Bianca looked at him concerned. "If Vera finds out, you are putting Ashlyn in danger."

"My wife is trying to help you and your brother," Lawrence added, "and I realize you don't think you need it, but she will do as she promised. She will kill Ashlyn if she finds out you are here."

"And that's why I'm not staying," Chris informed them. "I'm only staying long enough to ask you for something of Ashlyn's to scry with."

Lawrence frowned and looked at Bianca. "What is he talking about?"

Chris raised an eyebrow. "He doesn't know what scrying is either."

"It's never really been needed in what I do," Bianca shot back. "What makes you think you can scry for my daughter?"

"My brother."

"Huh?"

"He's convinced that it will work and he made a good case for it, so I'm inclined to agree with him."

"What do you need then?"

"Something of Ashlyn's, something close to her," Chris said thinking. "A toy, a piece of jewelry, if she wears any, an article of clothing, even a lock of hair."

Bianca nodded and ran out of the room leaving the two men alone.

Chris looked, uncomfortably, at the man who, in a sense, had replaced him. "So how long have you and Bianca known each other?"

A small smile curled onto Lawrence's face in remembrance.

* * *

_It really was beginning to look like he was going to die. Lawrence glanced over at his oldest brother, Brandon. "Get out of here, Brandon. It's me she seems to want."_

Brandon shook his head hard and swung the piece of metal piping he had found at the intruder. "I've seen enough movies to know if you see the killer's face they are going to kill you. If I'm going to die anyway, I'd rather die trying to keep you alive."

The woman, Vera they later learned, easily avoided Brandon's blow and threw a knife at him. Then she side stepped some falling boxes and took aim at Lawrence.

The knife was headed straight for him, but before he could duck out of the way another woman appeared in front of him and grabbed the knife. "Are you really ready to make this into a fight, Vera?" the younger woman asked.

Vera stepped back and grabbed Brandon by the hair. She yanked him to her and put a knife to his neck. It was only then that she fixed her gaze of the newcomer. With her free hand Vera swiped her black hair out of the way and glared at her. "Truly? Again? Don't you have anything better to do, traitor?"

"Traitor am I?" she asked looking at her amused. "We're witches, Vera. Seems to me I'm not the one who's a traitor."

"Witches?" Brandon mouthed at his brother.

Lawrence shrugged.

"And I don't see what could possibly be better than saving a life. Can you?"

"Don't get in the way of my bounty, Bianca."

Bianca waved a paper about. "You mean this bounty? It's been canceled. I would have been here sooner, but it took a while to determine what he wanted and how to get it. You still want to fight this battle?"

Vera scowled. "You will regret this, Bianca. I don't like losing money." With that she blinked and disappeared.

Bianca turned to the two brothers. "I'm sorry about that. Unfortunately one of you made some enemies that decided they wanted him dead. I think I've dealt with that, but I can't guarantee he won't try, again."

"But how did you know she was trying to kill Lawrence?" Brandon asked looking relieved. "And what did you mean about being a witch?"

Bianca smiled. "I had hoped that you missed that part, but I guess it would difficult to miss how I arrived or how she left, so I guess it doesn't matter. I'm Bianca and yes, I am a witch."

* * *

"About six years, I guess," Lawrence told Chris as Bianca returned to the room.

Bianca walked up to them and held out a small doll blanket. "Ashlyn got a doll this last Christmas, but the only thing she ever played with was this blanket. For some reason she simply adored it, so you'd better return it."

Chris nodded as he took the blanket from her. "I will." He looked at Lawrence. "I will get your daughter back." And then he orbed out.

* * *

Chris reformed in his parents' attic, the home of the Book of Shadows. Right now, though, it was not going to be of much use. He could recite what little it said on Phoenix without much thought, could probably write additional information if he was so inclined, and probably should. He hadn't though and now was not the time for that.

He put the little doll blanket on a table that had been set up for making potions and went in search of a map. After finding one he spread it out on the table next to the blanket and went after a scrying crystal. This proved to be slightly more difficult, but in the end it took only a matter of a few minutes to find all the things he needed.

As Chris picked up the blanket and hung the crystal by a string from the same hand he heard the door to the attic open and looked around startled. He breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of his dad.

"I thought we left you at the hospital," Leo commented, gently.

Chris nodded. "We got a call from Bianca. Vera went after her daughter."

Leo frowned. "I see." Motioning toward the scrying crystal, he asked, "Is this to find her?"

Chris nodded. "She's just a little girl. She's not part of this and she shouldn't be."

"Being a child never stopped evil when the child was magical," Leo reminded him. "Sometimes not even when the child wasn't magical. There was a warlock who went after a pregnant co-worker of Prue's to get at the baby. And a ghost who tried to kill an infant. Neither child was magical. None of their doing." Leo shrugged. "Well, perhaps the first one was the baby's doing since the warlock was a time traveler."

Chris chuckled. "A little much of that in the magical community, isn't there."

"A little much of that in this family," Leo returned. "I should probably head back downstairs. Your mother is waiting for me."

"Tell her I said, 'hi'. I know she'll ask."

Leo smiled. "She will. We've been talking ever since we got home."

Chris raised an eyebrow and looked curious at his dad. "About what?"

"Different things."

"You mentioned it for a reason."

Leo nodded. "I have been considering something for several weeks and I wanted to run it past your mom."

"What's that?"

"I am seriously considering going back to school in the fall," Leo informed him. "I didn't get very far as a youth, but I think I should return."

"Go back to school?" Chris looked at him startled. "No offense, Dad, but you are, what, one hundred?"

"One hundred and three," Leo replied without hesitation. "Or I will be in a couple of months. I don't look that old, nor do I feel it. I admit that I am a bit old for medical school . . ."

"Medical school," Chris looked at him stunned. "You are going back to become a doctor?"

Leo nodded. "I believe I am. It will take several years, even if I take extra classes, and even if I was as old as I look, I'd still be older than probably everyone else in school, but I am being drawn toward it. I will let you know when I am certain, but I think that this is something I need to do."

Chris stared at him for several seconds, but before he could react anymore he was jerked as the crystal found its home. He looked down at the map. He stared for several seconds and chuckled. "Salem. Great." He looked up at Leo. "Dad, do we have any maps of Salem, Massachusetts? I need to scry for Ashlyn there."

Leo nodded and headed for the shelves. "Think about what I said."

Chris nodded, but under his breath he mumbled, "I'm thinking of quitting my one class and my dad wants to take on a full load." He watched his dad over by the bookshelf. "Well, at least he has a goal in sight. I never had that."

* * *

This story is nearing to an end. There are still a few chapters to go, but not a whole lot.


	20. Bored and Alone

First a thank you to my reviewers:

Mandraco - Thank you. When I chose to put her into this story, I wanted to see where she might be and I wanted those words she said to her mother in "Chris-Crossed" to mean something. They could go either way, I suppose, but I chose to take it this way. I'm glad you like how I dealt with her. I admit that I haven't read very many stories with Bianca in them, but recently I read one by Lexi-Charmed or Lexi'sSpinOffs on her website. You can't read it here, because most of her stories she writes in script like format. It's in her season 3 of Progeny (I believe) and is well done as is Bianca's character. You might like it.

TaintedDarkInuShemeeko - I'm glad that you liked chapter seventeen. I look foward to seeing what you think of chapters eighteen and nineteen. Thanks for reviewing.

While Chris is out trying to find Ashlyn, Wyatt is alone in his hospital room, but not for long.

* * *

Chapter Nineteen – Bored and Alone

Wyatt wished that he had asked someone to bring him something to read. Even a list of incoming items for exhibits would have been welcome. He was that bored. He smirked. Actually, _that_ might be kind of interesting if it were the right kind of exhibits.

He looked at the various monitoring devises attached to him. By that point they were supercilious. The only way his stats were going to drop was if Vera returned and got the drop on him, something he decidedly didn't intend to happen.

Deciding he was tired of being confined to bed, Wyatt climbed out of the covers and sat on the edge of the bed. Careful of the monitoring devises he slid off the bed and onto the floor.

It felt good to feel the floor under his bare toes. It was so nice to be able to put his weight onto his legs and move across the floor under his own power, even if it was only a few steps due to all the machines attached to him. Come morning he was going to plead with the staff to remove them.

Having nowhere to go and no space to maneuver he returned to the bed and sat down. As he sat there trying to decide if he should contact the nurse staff now about removing the monitoring devises he heard a sound behind him. Not sure of the source, he still raised his shield. After all, any human entering from the direction of the window was unlikely to be welcome.

He heard the sizzle of something hitting his shield as he turned around to face Vera. "Back, again?"

"All alone, I see," Vera commented as she eyed his shield. "You know that's not very smart."

"I can handle you."

"Can you?" Her eyes were stead on him, unblinking. "I think you only have that one trick, your little shield and without it, you are powerless."

"You think so?"

She smirked and reached into her pocked and pulled out a vial, throwing it.

Wyatt blinked and orbed the vials away. With a swipe of his hand he moved the chairs against the wall out of the way.

"Interesting." Vera reached into her other pocket.

Before she could pull anything out Wyatt used his arm to slam her into the wall where one of the chairs had been. No point in drawing questions with broken furniture if possible.

Vera shook her head and pushed herself up, swiping dust off her clothes. She stared at him intently and scowled. "You have to sleep sometime." And then she blinked out.

Wyatt heaved in a sigh, but he didn't drop his shield. Another minute or two and he would have to, but until then he didn't want to be caught unaware. And he knew she would return.

* * *

With Vera returning, Chris doesn't have much time. Will he find Ashlyn in time?


	21. The Search

First a thank you to my reviewer:

TaintedDarkInuShemeeko - I am so very sorry this took so long. I got caught up in other things and somehow I forgot to update here. I like your response to Wyatt's actions in the last chapter. That makes me smile.

* * *

Chapter Twenty – The Search

Chris found himself in a dark house, and not just in lighting, but in decoration. The walls were painted the color of wet blood; the floors were carpeted in a brown reminiscent of dried blood.

He wrinkled his nose as a strong metallic smell met him on entering a long hallway. He started to turn a knob, but stopped. He closed his eyes and focused on turning invisible.

When his eyes reopened he had to trust that it worked for he could still see himself. For whatever reason, his eyes seemed to adjust to see him and anything else invisible. He turned the knob and looked inside.

Seeing no one he turned off his invisibility and looked around. He opened a closet and grimaced as it squeaked. Finding no sign of the little girl he shut it again and exited.

He checked three more rooms, one of which turned out to be a bathroom, before he found a locked door. He debated, but quickly decided to ignore the lock.

Chris focused on turning invisible again and then he orbed out of the hall.

* * *

When Chris reappeared in the bedroom on the other side of the door all that was visible of him was blue and white orbs. He looked around the dark room and saw nothing.

He felt along the wall near the door and flicked on the light. As his eyes adjusted to the light he scanned the room. He stopped on the bed where blankets partially covered a sleeping Ashlyn.

Chris had only taken a few steps forward when Vera blinked in. She looked at him as she stepped between him and the little girl. "I wondered why your brother was alone."

Chris gulped, but forced himself to ignore the implications of that statement. He tried to find a way around Vera but even if he orbed over there he figured she'd react with deadly force by the time he reappeared.

____________

* * *

_"Mini me said he had to save Wyatt," Chris commented as he handed off his miniature version to his grandfather._

Victor looked at both versions of his younger grandson perplexed. "He said all that?"

"Not in those words, but enough," Chris returned. "What did he / I mean?"

"I asked him to use his powers and find his brothers," Victor told him. "And that's what he did."

"I orbed him here?"

Victor nodded. "I was very proud of you."

Chris grinned. "Thanks, Grandpa. I intend to make you even more proud of me in years to come."

____

_

* * *

_

_And this is one of those times to make him proud of me_, Chris grinned as a plan formed in his mind.

Vera's eyes narrowed. "What are you planning?"

Chris crossed his arms in front of him. "I'm just trying to figure out how to get back _Ashlyn_." The last word was emphasized and filled with magical command as blue-white orbs surrounded Ashlyn and she disappeared into his arms.

Vera didn't bother talking. She pulled out a knife and threw it at Chris.

Chris gulped, but stood still as Ashlyn appeared into his arms. As soon as she was there he orbed them both out, the knife passing through where they had been less than a second later.

Vera swore as the knife hit the door to the hall. "Bianca!"

* * *

Since I have been neglecting this story on this site, I will try to upload the last couple of chapters and the first chapter of the next episode in the next week or so. No promises, but I am going to try. Enjoy.


	22. One Shot

First a thank you to my reviewer:

That70sshowlova - Yep he found her. Now he has to get her safe to her parents and Vera isn't going to give up easily.

Bianca and Lawrence both know something is going to happen and they are preparing for what might happen in their own way. Lawrence with his two brothers who are with the police has one way and Bianca with her Phoenix background has another.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-One – One Shot

Bianca ran her knife against a stone, sharpening it. "I shouldn't have told them. I should have gone after Vera myself. I should have gotten our daughter back myself."

Lawrence shook his head. "Bianca, you have never beaten her. You've only ever stalled her long enough to get bounties removed. If you could have, you would have long before we met."

Bianca sighed and nodded. "I know, but trust is hard for me and I don't know them at all."

Lawrence went over to the couch and tipped over the arm. He reached in and pulled out a gun.

Bianca stared at him stunned. "Lawrence?"

"I have two brothers with the police," he commented. "Did you think I didn't know how to use one?"

"Of course I knew you could use one," Bianca countered. "I just don't know why you are getting it out."

Lawrence looked her in the eye. "Vera took our daughter which means she really wants this bounty. She won't give it up and if they can get Ashlyn back safely, she'll come after us. She's not about to let you talk anyone out of this."

"I've killed other Phoenix before to protect their bounties," Bianca lamented throwing two knives in rapid succession at a dart board on the far side of the room, hitting the bull's-eye with both. As she walked over to retrieve them she asked, "Why can't I kill Vera?"

"For the same reason you can't kill Nina, your childhood playmate," Lawrence replied as he loaded his gun, "or your mom. They may be killers, but they are killers you care for, love. They're family."

"But I'm not even related to Vera or Nina," Bianca protested as she returned her knives to their sheaths and turned around to face him.

Lawrence never replied as blue-white lights filled the space between them and Chris orbed in cradling a sleeping Ashlyn.

"Ashlyn!" Bianca exclaimed and took a step forward. She stopped and reached for her knives as she saw Vera blink in behind Lawrence. In horror she watched as Vera raised her own knife.

Realizing something was wrong, Lawrence turned around, gun still in hand. His eyes widened at the knife headed toward him even as he took aim and shot.

"Knife," Chris called out, unable to move his hand much with a sleeping child in his arms. The knife orbed into Chris' barely free hand.

Lawrence let out a huge breath as he realized the knife was no longer a threat and that his bullet had hit it mark, dead center on Vera's forehead.

Vera was dead before she dropped to the ground. Her spirit exited her body unnoticed and was pulled struggling into a dark vortex.

Lawrence slumped to the ground staring at his gun, shaking. "I've never. . ." A sigh rattled through his lips. Without looking he spoke in a shaky voice. "Bianca, get Ashlyn from him. Get rid of any prints on that knife. Vera wears gloves so they won't expect any, but there must be no sign that he was here when the police arrive." He turned his head enough to look at Chris. "Thank you." And then he fainted.

Bianca laughed nervously. "I guess that's why he never joined the force like Mason and Sheldon."

Chris offered her a half smile as he handed Ashlyn over to her. "I guess so."

"He's right," Bianca commented as she watched her daughter's steady breathing. "You can't be associated with this. "She looked up at him, tears threatening her eyes. "Thank you. Thank you."

Chris smiled. No, this wasn't the woman he had known. She was like her, but not the same. "Be careful. What you do is dangerous. Probably as dangerous or close to what I do. I know a little about Phoenix and I know this can't be easy for you."

She made a sound that seemed to be agreement before she focused back on her daughter. "We'll make sure there is no official mention of you in this," she said as lay Ashlyn on the couch and walked over to where her husband was stirring, "but you'd best be going so I can call the police."

Chris watched her for several seconds as he wondered if things might have been different if he'd met her sooner or if he'd have even cared before he remembered that other life time. And then, when he thought he knew the answer, he orbed away from her, away from her family, away from her life, because the answer didn't matter.

* * *

One more chapter of this story. Chris has to get back to his brother.


	23. Peanut

First a thank you to my reviewer:

Calli2009 - Thank you. I try to strive for that with my characters and it is good that you believe I am accomplishing that.

Chris returns to his brother's hospital room, but not before Wyatt gets a call from their mom trying to find out how her sons are doing.

* * *

Chapter Twenty-Two – Peanut

"No, Mom I don't know when he'll be back," Wyatt informed his mom over the phone. He'd been glad to hear her voice on the other end until the subject of Chris had come up and he'd had to tell her that his little brother had gone after Vera.

"He probably got hurt," Piper started.

Wyatt quit listening as his brother orbed into the room in front of him. "Chris!"

Chris smiled. "It's over."

"You killed Vera?" Wyatt asked astonished.

Chris shook his head. "No, Lawrence did. Who's on the phone?"

"You don't just say things like that and change the subject," Wyatt protested.

Chris shrugged. "What else do you want? Vera caught me looking for Ashlyn and when I managed to get away with the girl, she followed me. Everything happened pretty fast after that, but Vera is dead. Lawrence shot her."

Wyatt was quiet as he considered this. Finally, he picked up his phone and handed it to his brother. "Tell Mom you're back and alive."

Chris rolled his eyes, but complied. "Hi, Mom. I'm fine."

"Are you sure, Peanut?"

"Mom!" Chris winced. "I'm twenty-two not two. Ladybug might want to go by her baby name, but seriously, Mom."

"Chris," Piper replied sternly, "you are my baby and I love you and I will call you Peanut if I want to."

Knowing it was pointless to argue, he sighed. "Fine, yes, I am sure. I am unharmed. Vera is dead and apparently, I wasn't there."

"What?" Piper asked confused. "Did you say Vera is dead?"

"I did," Chris replied. "Look, I'll tell you more later. It's late and since I no longer have Vera to worry about, I intend to get some sleep. Good night, Mom."

"You can't just . . ."

"Mom, I love you, but it's been a long night, so later. I'll come by in the morning and tell you the story. Just know we are safe." He glanced back at his brother. "Do you want to talk to Wyatt?"

"No, just pass on my love to him. Good night, Peanut."

"Chris."

"You're my baby right now."

Chris sighed. "Good night." He flipped closed Wyatt's phone and handed it back to him. "Mom sends her love."

Wyatt smiled. "What'd she call you?"

"None of your business."

"I'll find out."

Chris scowled at him. "I am going to try and get some sleep."

"Uh uh." Wyatt shook his head. "You are going to tell me what happened."

Chris looked at him for several seconds and sighed. He sat down in one of the chairs. "She has, had, a really creepy house," He began. "I think I smelled blood as I walked down the hall."

Wyatt wrinkled his nose. "And you're sure she's dead?"

"Bullet between the eyes."

Wyatt blinked at stared at him. "Bullet? She was downed by nonmagical means?"

Chris nodded. "She was human of sorts."

"But she was a warlock. Are you sure she's dead?"

Chris inclined his head. "I am sure that if she wasn't when I left, which I do think she was, that she is by now. After what she did, taking their daughter, trying to kill all of us, they won't let her walk away."

"Fair enough," Wyatt conceded. "I just hope for their sake she was already dead."

"Want me to call and find out?"

Wyatt shook his head. "No, we can call in the morning, but unless they call and let us know otherwise, we'll assume you are right." He searched his brain for some way to change the subject. "Kali was in here earlier."

Chris raised an eyebrow. "I know. I heard her when we were on the phone earlier."

"Yes, well she had some news."

"Good news."

"Not so much, but why don't I tell you about it?"

Chris looked at the clock in the wall. "You don't want to sleep, do you?"

Wyatt blinked in surprise. "What makes you think that?"

"Because you keep stalling. Am I right?"

Wyatt sighed. "No. I mean, yes, you are right. I don't want to sleep, but not for the reasons you think."

"Oh?"

Wyatt shook his head. "Look, there's some things going on in my dreams, weird things and I just don't want to dream."

"Weird things?"

"Very weird things. Things about Amber, things about Seth. It's been over eight months since I've seen Amber and no one knows anything." Wyatt sighed. "And now Seth. Have you heard any word from him?"

Chris shook his head. "Not in a while. I just figured he was busy."

"Well, if he's busy, than he hasn't told his dad, because Derek called me today. He's worried about his son and I couldn't tell him anything because I have seen him in over two months." He closed his eyes and sighed. "I just don't want to dream."

Chris stared at his big brother, debating what to say, what to ask. Finally, he chose five words. "Tell me about Kali's news."

The End

* * *

That's all for this story, but not for the series. Be sure to check out the next episode of Charmed: Heritage "Wyatt's Friend". Wyatt's best friend has been away for a while, but something he found in the underworld compels him to return. Chris has trouble at work when he exposes magic to a co-worker something big is brewing in the underworld, something that is one hundred years in coming.


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